Newspaper Page Text
SIXTEEN-B
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
DECEMBER 21, 1957,
BOOK REVIEWS
(Continued From Page 15-B)
briefest in the book, is a concise
and compact argument for her
art, entitled “The Fiction Writer
and His Country.” Having the
most to say, she says it in the
fewest words, which greatly
intensifies its impact.
“My own feeling,” she says, for
instance, “is that writers who see
by the light of their Christian
faith will have, in these times,
the shai'pest eyes for the grotes
que, for the perverse, and for the
unacceptable. In some cases, these
writers may be unconsciously in
fected with the Manichaean spirit
of the times and suffer the much
discussed disjunction between
sensibility and belief, but I think
that more often the reason for this
attention to the perverse is the
difference between their beliefs
and the beliefs of their audience.
Redemption is meaningless unless
there is cause for it in the actual
life we live, and for the last few
centuries there has been opera
ting in our culture the secular
belief that there is no such cause.
“The novelist with Christian
concerns will find in modern life
distortions which are repugnant
to him, and his problems will be
to make these appear as distor
tions to an audience which is
used to seeing them as natural;
and he may well be forced to take
ever more violent means to get
his vision across to this hostile
audience. When you can assume
that your audience holds the same
beliefs you do. you can relax a
little and use more normal ways
of talking to it; when you have
to assume that it does not, then
you have to make your vision
apparent by shock—to the hard
of hearing you shout, and for the
almost blind you draw large and
startling figures.”
THIS PLACE CALLED
LOURDES, by Sister Maureen
Flynn, O. P. (Regnery, $3.75).
(Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester)
This is a guide book written
with love. Sister Maureen admits
that rampant commercialism
exists in the town of Lourdes
where, as at Lisieux, the streets
abound in shops offering an end
lessness of cheap religious articles.
She allows that the churches at
Lourdes are something less than
great architecture, and she says
candidly that the famous hymn
sung daily by hundreds and some
times thousands at Lourdes is no
contribution to music as music.
But having looked at these ogres
for what they are, she tells us
simply that the Virgin’s indisput
able special presence at Lourdes
soaringly transcends these blatant
violations of good taste. At the
same time, to further de-accent-
uate the suggestion of mass hys
teria (which the abundance of
cheap art unfortunately usually
does suggest) Sister Maureen em
phasizes the quietness and
absence of emotional displays at
Lourdes. Finally, and mainly, she
cites figures and explicit histories
of cures, and describes in detail
the elaborate process required
for Church certification of a cure
as miraculous or extraordinary.
As a descriptive work, Sister
Maureen’s book is highly satisfy
ing; her style is economical, con
taining a maxium number of facts
to a minimum of words. The
abundance of her own love for
Lourdes may seem to some like a
vision-improving microscope; to a
non-Catholie, however, it could
appear that this same love is just
an obfuscating mote. For our own
part, we’re not among those who
think love is blind.
ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, by
Bruno de Jesus Marie, OCD,
(Sheed & Ward, $6.00).
DOCTOR RABELAIS, by D. B.
Wyndham Lewis, (Sheed &
Ward, $4.00).
(Reviewed by Flannery
O’Connor)
This definitive life of St. John
of the Cross has a valuable in
troduction by Jacques Maritain
and a postscript by the editor,
Father Benedict Zimmerman. The
postscript could well be read be
fore the main body of the work
as it summarizes in a clear fash
ion the history of the Reform of
the Carmelite Order in Spain in
the 16th century. This is a tor
tuous history and without a
summary of it, the reader will
frequently be lost in this par
ticular biography. The author
made use of the latest discovered
documents at the time of writing
—the translation was made in
1932—and for those interested in
l'esearch on the subject, the work
will be valuable and necessary.
The scholarship is thorough but
the presentation is often fuzzy.
Most of the notes are in Spanish.
There is a good deal of place de
scription which is tedious and no
monk Or nun but Who passed in
front of the saint fails to be nam
ed and described. St. John of
the Cross does emerge from all
this but not so solidly as in some
of Father Bruno’s shorter essays
on various aspects of his subject.
It is a good deal easier to write
a biography of a scoundrel than
a saint, even when not as much
is known about him. What is
known of Rabelais would fill a
few pages but Mr. D. B. Wyn
dham Lewis has pursued his sub
ject through 250. Rabelais began
his clerical life as a Franciscan,
switched to the Benedictines,
switched to the regular clergy,
and it is not known finally whe
ther he died in or out of the
Church, but Mr. Lewis’ effort
has largely been to show that his
subject was no hero of enlight
enment in the 16th centui'y but a
rather ordinary opportunist with
a great comic genius. In this he
succeeds to the reader’s satisfac
tion and since he has a high ap
preciation of Rabelais’ gift, his
argument fortunately escapes the
sound of special pleading.
CHINA AND THE CROSS, by
Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, (Ken
edy, $3.95).
(Reviewed by Elizabeth Hester)
Beautifully written, this brief
history of the Christian missions
in China is also soothingly scho
larly and obviously scrupulously
fair in all it deals with. But how
ever aesthetically pleasing, the
main effect is that of setting up
jolting far-from-settled questions.
How right were the suave Jesuits
to adopt Chinese dress, advocate
a Chinese rite, work through the
aristocrats, making themselves,
as it were, Romans in Rome? How
right, on the other hand, were
the earnest undiplomatic Domini
cans and others to be almost in
sultingly adamant against the use
of the Chinese language in the
Mass, against conceding anything
to the extravagant respect the
Chinese pay to their dead, and in
approaching the hordes of unin-
fluential illiterates almost to the
exclusion of the powerful elite?
How is the Christian to hold off
the contention that Christianity
is a Western religion only and
can never take hold in the ori
ental mind when, in fact, mis
sions in the Orient have rarely
been notably successful? Above
all, China and the Cross arouses
a sense of urgency regarding the
malignance of Communism. In a
little under ten years the Com
munists have almost wholly de
molished three hundred years of
Christian missionary labor in
China; the largest question, then,
is how to break the back of this
juggernaut.
FRESH CHANNEL CATFISH
DINNERS
WITH HUSHPUPP1ES
ALL YOU CAN EAT -
$125
TWO LOCATIONS
2375 STEWART AVE. (OLD SHADY LAWN
PO. 8-4611
MORELAND AVE., S. E., 2 MI. SOUTH OF ATLANTA, MA. 7-1722
Also Serving:
Steaks — Chops — Chicken — Ham — Shrimp
Orders Boxed to Take Out
r--. ...
i. •
No Alcoholic Beverages Allowed
8 Thousand Pounds of Fish Sold Every Week
Hours: 11:30 A. M. To 10:30 P. M.
DIA IflCTA DECT III
miiif
1
IV VUIM RUIHUHAI1I
2375 STEWART AVE. — PO. 6-4611
MORELAND AVE.. S. E. —- 4 MILES SOUTH
OF ATLANTA
First ftlm3 of the excavation of St. Peter’s tomb get close
inspection by Msgr. John J. Dougherty, S.S.D., production
supervisor of the films series to be seen on the January Catho
lic Hour-TV series entitled “Rome Eternal.” Author Paul Hor-
gan, winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1954, has written the film
commentary. Catholic Hour on television is produced by the
National Council of Catholic Men, and the National Broadcast
ing Co. (NC Photos)
Christians Pharmacy
Your Reliable and Friendly Drug Store
FORREST PARK, GEORGIA
PO. 7-9728
237-239 Whitehall St.. S. W, JA. 2-6609
ATLANTA,, GEORGIA
IfWik. llou. omc(. UJqA/m. Widiea
We hope you have a very delightful Christma*
eurrounded by devoted family and friends.
ATLANTA BOX FACTORY
"Boxes that Moke Good Impressions
for You"