Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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"