Book suggestions
If you are looking for a good book to read these winter months, CTA-Wisconsin has a couple of suggestions.
A ‘Radical’ Catholic Reviews Radically Catholic in the Age of Francis: An Anthology of Visions for the Future by Robert Christian. He begins:
The 2016 US Presidential campaign has included a semantic battle over the proper terminology to use when discussing members of ISIS and other violent extremists who share their totalitarian aspirations. Some Republican candidates believe the best term is “Radical Islam.” This terminology is problematic for a variety of reasons, but particularly because of its lack of clarity and the incorrect insinuation that being radical requires violence and brutality. It does not.
The recent book Radically Catholic in the Age of Francis demonstrates this perfectly. This aversion to the term ‘radical’ among candidates like Ted Cruz is not surprising. Many of these candidates embrace a watered-down, bourgeois form of Christianity that pales in comparison to authentic devotion to the way of Christ. Christianity calls for a countercultural presence. Those who are immersed in (and inseparable from) the mainstream culture are unlikely to embrace the radicalism of Christianity. And this may explain why they view radicalism so negatively.”This is a collection of essays from ‘all stripes’ and speaks, rather clearly, to the brokenness in our politics, economies, communities and our Churches.Take-away: To be “Catholic” is to be counter-cultural, “radical”. Radical Catholics can’t step outside or apart from the gross injustice we all experience today.
In the best sense this speaks to Call To Action; CTA is truly “radical. This is available as a Kindle eBook. Here is the full review.
The second is one recommended by Chapter Leader Mary Jane Stevenson (Dallas). It is author J. Philip Newell’s Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation. In her review, she states “Christ of the Celts is especially worth the read if, like me, you struggle with the Church’s traditional teaching about Christ’s death as a type of payment for sin. The author explains how Celtic Christians eschewed this teaching (called the doctrine of substitutionary atonement by the hierarchical Church) yet remained devoted to Jesus and the cross because they believed Jesus’ death demonstrated something much more profound.” This is NOT yet available in as a Kindle eBook. The full review is at the CTA Wisconsin website.
