Briefly Reviewed: May 2024

What Is Christianity?: The Last Writings

By Pope Benedict XVI

Publisher: Ignatius

Pages: 232

Price: $24.95

Review Author: Edward Finn

Reviewing a book suggests giving an opinion of its worth or even criticizing it. How could a layman possibly provide such an opinion about the work of a theological master, a likely saint? This review of the late Pope Benedict XVI’s last writings simply aims to convey the themes he presents in the text and to be a conduit for the wisdom contained therein. Indeed, the idea that we are but conduits, that to be Christian means to be a conduit for God’s love, is a common theme in Benedict’s work.

What is Christianity? is a collection of 18 brief texts, written in several different forms, including essay, lecture, letter, address, and interview. Some are new works while others are reprints or reworkings of prior material. Topics range from the liturgy, music, and the meaning of Holy Communion to Jewish-Christian relations, the nature of religion, the nature of the priesthood, the sexual-abuse scandal, a tribute to Pope St. John Paul II, and Benedict’s devotion to St. Joseph. Taken together, they give insight into the mind of an expert theologian and holy man of God, and into the topics, often controversial, that he considered of great importance toward the end of his life.

Is there an answer to the question posed in the title? That depends on the context in which the question is asked. Benedict provides explanations from eschatological, sacrificial, metaphysical, and historical standpoints. The most succinct answer is found in a passage that may have suggested the book’s title. Benedict describes Christianity as “a transformation of our life, a transformation of the world as a whole into a new existence.” Life as a Christian “means a dynamic of ascent; it is participation in Jesus Christ’s new way of existing.” This transformation, Benedict teaches, is a participation in God’s love, which is meant to fill us, work in us, and pass through us, overflowing into the world, such that we achieve this participation. Some examples of this follow.

In the first text, “Love at the Origin of Missionary Work,” Benedict writes that “part of the nature of religion is the profound tension between the mystical offering to God, in which we give ourselves totally to him, and responsibility for our neighbor and for the world created by God.” He continues, “The meeting point between the two poles is the love in which we touch God and his creatures at the same time.”

In the next essay, “What is Religion?” Benedict considers the historical struggle between false gods and the one true God. He discusses God’s ultimate victory in Christianity, stating that man “fully becomes a person by accepting the gift of being loved by God and by handing it on.” The love of God for us and our love for our fellow man are inherently connected. By accepting God’s love, we by nature love others.

Even in music this is true, as Benedict explains that great music is God’s love working through us: “One could say that the quality of music depends on the purity of the grandeur of the encounter with the divine…. The purer and truer that experience is, the purer and greater will be also the music that is born and develops from it.” Music is simply an outflowing of divine grace, which passes through the musician or composer into the object of musical sound.

In “Faith Is Not an Idea but a Life,” Benedict discusses St. Paul’s teaching that Christ is for all people and that Christians “do not exist for themselves…they exist for others.” What each human person needs is “interior openness to God,” which then manifests in going forth to others and seeking “to render visible the coming of God in Christ.”

Beautiful and profound passages are found in back-to-back essays on the priesthood and the meaning of Holy Communion. In both, the late Pope examines the historical development of the priesthood from the Old Testament to the New, explaining the Old Testament sacrifices and priesthood in light of Jesus Christ and demonstrating how Jesus fulfilled and perfected the worship of God. He writes, “In the words of the Last Supper, he joined the Sinai tradition to the prophetic tradition and thereby truly instituted the ‘worship’ of the New Covenant, in which worship and lovingly listening to the Word of God — which becomes service to one’s neighbor, love of neighbor — are one and the same thing.”

Benedict reiterates that to be Christian is to let God permeate us, and this is accomplished sacrificially through the Eucharist. He writes, “The Eucharist as the presence of the descent and ascent of Christ thus always recalls, beyond itself, the many ways of service through love of neighbor.” The miracle of the Eucharist allows us to participate in Christ’s sacrifice, the perfection of worship, and thus in the divine itself. And if we participate in the divine, it follows that we must act (or let God act through us) divinely by loving and forgiving others. In sum, “To be one with God is to put aside what is only me and to become one with God’s whole will.”

Finally, in his tribute to John Paul II, Benedict discusses the nature of the heroic virtues and what it means to be a saint. A heroic man is “a man who allows God to act within him and, therefore, to make visible through him the action and the power of God…. A saint is an open man, penetrated by God. A saint is a person open to God, permeated by God.”

The 21: A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs

By Martin Mosebach. Translated by Alta L. Price

Publisher: Plough Publishing House

Pages: 272

Price: $15

Review Author: Elizabeth Hanink

Perhaps because we are distracted by the constant annoyances that besiege the Catholic Church here in the United States and in Europe, it is easy to forget the martyrdom of our coreligionists in countries where to profess Christianity is to flirt with death. Most of our contemporary saints seem larger than life: Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, Pope John Paul II, Gianna Molla. Who can forget their distinctive charisms? But the martyrdom of ordinary people for simply professing the faith is more easily forgotten. This happens even when we have reminders in the form of an easily accessible video.

But there’s no forgetting for Martin Mosebach, an acclaimed German novelist and poet. Upon hearing of the slaughter of 21 Coptic migrant workers in Libya during the 2015 rampage of radical Islamists, he set out to understand the people and the faith that shaped these young men and made possible their response when faced with the sword, Ya Rabbi Yassou! (“Oh my Lord Jesus!”).

You probably saw the news stories. The five-minute video of their murders is stark and gruesome: The 21 men, dressed in orange jumpsuits, with their hands tied behind their backs, march across a rocky beach, where they are decapitated by masked Muslims in a carefully choreographed execution. At the end, each head is carefully placed on the back of its corpse, and the leader of the band of ISIS militants brandishes his knife toward the camera, seeming, in many minds, to threaten the world.

The slain men were just poor farmers from Upper Egypt, hoping to work in Libya for several months and then take their meager wages back to their parents and spouses. Despite increasing danger, they had remained in the area because their families desperately needed their earnings. Except for one (Matthew was Ghanian), they were Copts, members of a minority religion that has suffered hardship and persecution almost from the beginning of Christianity. For Mosebach, this background was at least a partial explanation of why the men did not try to escape or renounce their faith. For Copts, daily life has always been a tale of facing persecution with courage.

Merely uttering “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet” might have saved them. Why didn’t they comply? Perhaps it was as explained by Abuna Bolla (Father Paul), one of their priests back home: “Every Christian must have a cross — a real one and a symbolic one, and both must be present. Every Christian must live the life of Jesus anew. Christians in Egypt have always understood this, and that is why Christianity is so strong in Egypt.” Copts see themselves as the Church of the Martyrs, today as much as ever. Danger comes from multiple sources, and even their hierarchy comes under fire. Anwar Sadat, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, banished Coptic Pope Shenuda III to a monastery for daring to object to Sadat’s plan to make Sharia the basis of Egyptian law. Yet Copts take miracles and the Church’s survival as a given. Abandoned Coptic monasteries are filling again, and churches continue to be built.

Each chapter of The 21 focuses on a single man. But Mosebach also delves into the men’s villages, where he meets not calls for revenge from their families but pride in the men’s martyrdom and in the Church that nurtured them. Throughout the book there is a richly detailed and interesting account of the Coptic Church: how it accepted the teachings of the first three councils but split from the Catholic Church after Chalcedon in 451; how it grew but was eventually eclipsed by Islam; how today its people are mired in poverty and oppressed by their own government. Its distinctive liturgy, largely unchanged since apostolic times, and the singular role it played in the lives of these men is explored, with the author (who also wrote The Heresy of Formlessness: The Roman Liturgy and Its Enemy, 2013) stating categorically that it was the “most important mental and aesthetic influence on their lives. They were raised and shaped by it, far more than they were by their few years of school, for those who went to school at all.”

Unlike many books about the lives of saintly people, The 21 inspires the reader not just by the example of the young men but equally by the communities and Church that enabled them, in the most critical moment of their lives, to renounce Satan.

In May 2023 Pope Francis announced the inscription of the names of these 21 men in the Roman Martyrology, the compendium of saints celebrated in the liturgy of the Roman rite of the Catholic Church.

God Loves the Autistic Mind: Prayer Guide for Those on the Spectrum and Those Who Love Us

By Matthew P. Schneider, L.C.

Publisher: Pauline Books & Media

Pages: 224

Price: $16.95

Review Author: Clara Sarrocco

Some encounter autism in their professional work, others in their family. But for many, it is part of who they are. Fr. Matthew Schneider is one of the two percent of the population who have been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Schneider didn’t receive his diagnosis until he was an adult. He just knew he was different and suffered many painful experiences. In God Loves the Autistic Mind, Schneider comes forward with his experiences with the hope of helping those who are on the autism spectrum (as well as those who are not) understand what it all means. He writes not only as a priest but as an autistic priest. He notes that a high percentage of autistics do not attend church, and many are agnostic or atheist. To help change this attitude, he writes, “I want to present a way for those of us on the spectrum to learn to pray, and to pray about the things we deal with.”

Fr. Schneider has learned coping behaviors. He is self-aware and knows when he needs to decompress because his emotional circuit is overloaded. Autism is a neurological, not a psychiatric, phenomenon, even though for some the syndrome does cause psychological problems. Schneider went through high school, college (where he studied computer engineering), seminary, and ordination without ever being diagnosed. He is now working on his doctoral dissertation in moral theology. After his initial diagnosis, he was devastated. “However, within a short while, that changed,” he writes, “and I realized I was better off now knowing, and I should be open about this to live in peace and to help others like me.”

God Loves the Autistic Mind is divided into two sections. Part One answers the question asked by its header, “What Makes Autistic Prayer Different?” For most autistics, there is comfort in continuity. Keeping the same schedule and repeating the same words helps to calm the racing mind. Praying fits perfectly into this scheme. For a neurotypical person, praying requires being focused and calm. For an autistic person, rocking or pacing is helpful. The outcome is the same, though the method differs. In mental prayer, autistics tend to concentrate more on specifics than emotions. For them, experiencing God has less to do with the emotional aspect and more with the rational explanation of the faith. For example, Schneider writes, “If I want to imagine the scene or contemplate the Lord’s words, I want to know all the details. As autistics we tend to remember a lot of details and make interesting connections.”

What is important for both neurotypicals and autistics is focus on God. Communicating with God in prayer can be wordless because God reads minds. Therefore, autistics often find it easier to communicate with God in wordless prayers. Fr. Schneider explains, “I communicate to God autistically and he communicates back on a deeper level than any word can hope to describe.” It is Schneider’s fondest desire to spread the message of Jesus to his fellow autistics, and he aims to enculturate the faith for this specific audience. Many feel excluded due in part to their disorder and in part to neurotypicals’ lack of understanding.

In Part Two, “Meditations for Autistics and Those Who Love Us,” Fr. Schneider presents 52 meditations he hopes “will help you see your wonderful autistic self as God has made you.” The meditations repeat the same format throughout. They begin with a story, either from Schneider’s own experience or from the experiences of other autistic Christians he has interviewed. This is followed by a Bible passage and a spiritual reflection. Each individual section ends with a short prayer that can easily fit into a daily prayer schedule. Schneider is a missionary for his cause, and his meditations are beautiful in their simplicity — not only for the autistic mind but also for the neurotypical. He very much wants his fellow autistics to realize the love Jesus Christ has for them, that they are not forgotten and are lovable just as they are.

Some autistic behaviors are found even in neurotypicals, but to a much lesser degree and usually on only one level. For example, many autistics need weighted blankets to help them sleep. Weighted blankets are now popular and can be found in most department stores. Also, anyone noting behavior in church will discover that many people sit in the same pew week after week, and not only the same pew but the same spot in the same pew. This behavioral pattern usually goes unchallenged and should help us to better understand the autistic mindset.

Fr. Schneider’s message is to everyone’s advantage: professionals, family members, friends, and especially priests who must teach the love of God to all people. God Loves the Autistic Mind is a book not to be overlooked.

By

Publisher:

Pages:

Price:

Review Author:

©2024 New Oxford Review. All Rights Reserved.

To submit a Letter to the Editor, click here: https://www.newoxfordreview.org/contact-us/letters-to-the-editor/