In Between

I'm reading a lot, but just not havaing time to post reviews .

Back in a while.

The Gospel of Judas... credible?

Judas and The Gospel of Jesus

N.T. Wright is an Anglican bishop and has taught at Oxford, Cambridge and McGill Universities. He is a prolific writer of New Testament studies.

With the manifestation of a new finding, bursting upon the scene in pre-Easter of 2006, Wright looked at the ‘new’ Gospel of Judas with the curiosity of an historian and the challenge of a theologian.

Wright offers the reader insight and information relative to various questions.

What is Gnosticism all about? Does the writing of extra canonical gospels inform us or dissuade us from our tradition? Is the Gospel of Judas apt to change our understanding of Jesus and the message of Christianity? Does this finding of the Gospel affect the relationship between Jews and Christians?

In this short but concise and readable account, Wright offers us precise and clear answers to the above questions.

Read and reflect.

Rise and Shine ... and more ....

Rise and Shine, a novel written by Anna Quindlen. This is the latest in the sequence of the writings of Quindlen.

Again, the line between fiction and non-fiction remains somewhat flexible and translucent. In her earlier novel, One True Thing, the reader could easily suspect that there were quasi-biographical aspects to the narrative.

In Black and Blue, there was so much reality that the story almost certainly was taken from the knowledge of a particular set of circumstances.

How can writers of fiction produce stories of verisimilitude without access to the events themselves?

In this story of sibling rivalry and love and competition, Quindlen has exceeded her skill level in describing how and when and why.

The plot is tricky; the characters are developed beyond the capability of the reader to assimilate; and the underlying theme is nearly hidden.

Read and reflect and enjoy.

The Sh'ma ... Dt 6:4

In Matthew 22: 36-40, they asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest. Jesus replied making reference to the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6 verses 4 and 5.

“ …Hear, O Israel,: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might…”

This is the great Sh'ma.


For Jews there is no more important statement than the Sh'ma.

Rabbi Joseph Meszler, Temple Sinai in Sharon, Massachusetts has had published his treatise on the exegesis of Dt 6:4 and the many different historical analyses of the Sh'ma by rabbinical scholars.

This is a very fruitful exercise that will be a powerful tool for discussion purposes.

The book is: "Witnesses to the One: Spiritual History of the SH'MA"

‘Digging to America’, by Anne Tyler

This is the seventeenth novel written by Anne Tyler. And, it continues the basic skeletal structure of Tyler who writes about families and sibling relationships and intergenerational themes.

What sets apart each of the novels is the context and historical environment and the ethnic issues surrounding the story line.

In this latest endeavor, Tyler writes about:

- adoption
- cultural contrast with mid-eastern immigrants and American citizens
- the plight of the widowed and widowers
- the need for family support and neighborly support
- differing parental styles.

Tyler is her usual self in the description of the joys and confrontations that arise out of the above themes. She writes with insight and humor.

An example of her insight is the following paragraph depicting the language issues (i.e., dialect) that are common to Iranians.

“…Uttering the phrase “Vigor-Vytes” led Farah to change over to English, probably without meaning to. It was a phenomenon Maryam had often observed among Iranians. They’d be rattling along in Farsi and then some word borrowed from America, generally something technical like ‘television’ or ‘computer’, would flip a switch in their brains and they would continue in English until a Farsi word flipped the switch back again…” P. 143.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

What is the teaching of the Catholic Church ---?

Fill in the blanks. But how do we find the definitive answer to the question?

Is it a matter of canon law? Is it a matter of sacramental reality? Is it a matter of liturgical law?

The church has a body of teaching that is explicated through several sources. In 1992, Pope John Paul II promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in which could be found the body of doctrine as understood at that post Vatican II era. The catechism in fact was the result of a proposal of the Synod of Bishops in 1985 meeting to celebrate the 20th year after the close of the Second Vatican Council.

After the publication of the catechism in 1992, produced in its original form in French and translated thereto into other languages, the church accepted revisions to the text for clarification, and published the ‘Latin Source’ for what is now the formal text of the catechism. This ‘editio typica’ was issued in 1997.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II established a commission to draft a concise formulation of the contents of the catechism into a dialogic format. Thus, work was initiated to produce a ‘Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church’.Pope Benedict XVI promulgated this compendium on 28 June 2005.

It has been translated into English and is available through many publishing houses.

Read and reflect.

What Did Jesus Mean?

Garry Wills, professor emeritus at Northwestern University, is best known for his writings on American history. His work also includes substantial contributions to the religious studies in contemporary literature. His writing on St. Augustine is critically acclaimed.

His most recent work, ‘What Jesus Meant’, is a very personal approach to a reflection on the underlying message of Jesus. Wills states clearly in the beginning that this work is not a piece of exegesis or scholarly analysis, but the work is his insight into the effect of the gospel message as discerned by Wills.

Thus, we have a very nuanced reflection that looks like a window into the sublime but falls neatly into the subjective opinion of a frustrated commentator.

Wills is in a stage of discontent with the church as order and authority. He suggests that Jesus had it right and the present church leaders have it wrong.

For example, Wills targets the present pope as being inimical to the example Jesus set. Wills says that “…Not for him the Epistle to the Hebrews, which says that Christ is the unique priest making the one last sacrifice. The pope, like his predecessors, is returning to the religion Jesus renounced, with all its paraphernalia of priesthood, separation from the laity, consecration of places and things, distance from the ‘unclean’ life of those not privileged by consecration…” p. 132.

This is pure opinion stated as pure fact.

Catholic Matters...

Catholic Matters: Confusion, controversy, and the Splendor of Truth.

Richard John Neuhaus is the editor-in-chief of the magazine First Things. He is a convert to Roman Catholicism from the Lutheran denomination. He is now a priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

This book is his most recent publication that reflects on his journey of faith from one Christian denomination into full communion with Roman Catholicism.

He writes about Catholicism from this perspective.

“ … Catholicism is not a theological construction, and certainly not the construction of a school of brilliant intellectuals. It is not a code of moral rules or an instructional supplier of spiritual uplift. One cannot begin to understand it without theology; moral rules mark the path to the holiness to which we are called, and Catholicism offers a spiritual alternative to the world’s abandonment to nihilism and despair. But, mainly, Catholicism is a habit of being in the centuries-long company of those , living and dead, who are part of a distinctive society with its own memories, vocabulary, rituals, devotions, and, yes, confusions and controversies, that are necessarily part of living in the splendor of the truth who is Jesus Christ…” pp. 244,245.

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

I'm slowly winding my way through another complicated narrative by Ms. Picoult. This is a convoluted tale of people relating to one another and being in dysfunctional relationships nearly simultaneously.

Mother/child is the core topic and the inability of folks to see the other in themselves is another topic that is interpsersd amidts the story line.

Let's see where it ends up before I conclude my brief review.

Christ the Pastor

Reading for reflection, insight, and affirmation…
That’s how I am feeling about my browsing through and settling in with ‘Gilead’, a novel written by Marilynne Robinson.

This is a story and not a story. From my perspective, it is a range of thought about life put into the context of a father and son dialogue. It is almost as a series of essays that are illumined by the historical narrative of a particular family.

As a minister and preacher, the storyteller frequently drifts into his pattern of explaining how a particular sermon came into being.

Of interest to me, as an ordained minister (permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church) is the following.

“ …I noted that Abraham himself had been sent into the wilderness, told to leave his father’s house also, that this was the narrative of all generations, and that it is only by the grace of God that we are made instruments of His providence and participants in a fatherhood that is always ultimately His.

At this point I departed from my text to say that an old pastor’s anxiety for his church is likewise a forgetfulness of the fact that Christ is Himself the pastor of His people and a faithful presence among them through all generations…” p. 129.

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Anne Rice has brought to fruition a novel with enormous benefit for the reader and consequent benefit to our society.

Rice has worked at understanding the history, the sociology, and the religious culture of the first century CE. She has studied the scriptures and the corollary commentaries of contemporary scholars. Rice has written the story that is absent from the Gospels. Rice writes of Jesus, born in Bethlehem and exiled to Egypt, as a youngster discerning his role in life and identity as a young boy.

This story, 'Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt', is fiction and non-fiction.

The story is narrative woven by Rice from the threads of the clues in the Gospels and the historical understanding of life in Judea at that time.

Read and reflect upon that great mystery.

Reading and Writing

The New Year and its attendant demand for work has minimized my irregular reading time.

There are books to read and to digest and report upon.

Meanwhile, check out the bi-weekly column accessible at www.walpoletimes.com

Click on my name.

After eight days, Jesus was circumcised ...

Faithful Jews ...

Mary and Joseph, according to the law, took Jesus to be circumcised, and then they went to the temple for the Purification.

After our children are born, how do we today initiate these gifts of God into the journey of faith?

Remembering the Story... or stories

The Birth of Jesus…Matthew 1:24… “ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife , but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus…”

Luke 2:6 “ … While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn…”


John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us…

The Incarnation

Le Jour C'est Arrivee..

We enter into the final days of Advent and prepare for the celebration of the entry of our God into our humanity.

More Midrash and Stories of Women and Torah

I recommend to all another book that sets a focus on women in the Bible as reflecting and being reflected by contemporary stories. The author is Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.

Mirkin has studied Torah since her early student days. She relates the stories of biblical women in their relationship to their families and the critical events that arise. The approach Mirkin takes is a contemporary ‘Midrash’.

For example, in the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael, Mirkin says, “… When God said ‘listen’ to Sarah’s voice, Abraham thought God meant obey and went into action mode by expelling Hagar and Ishmael. But, as I tell many of the heterosexual couples with whom I work, ‘Men might believe in the statement ‘don’t just sit there, do something;’ but women often need you to ‘don’t just do something, sit there’!”

P. 39 The Women Who Danced by the Sea

And, what are you reading?

This is your opportunity. Tell me and the viewers what books or articles have come your way and we should look at.

Click on the 'Comments' field and have at it.

Apostle to the Apostles

In his writing of “Mary Magdalene”: A Biography, Bruce Chilton underscores the scriptural references to Mary as being there at the cross and subsequently at the tomb.

Chilton further affirms that Mary is the first person to ‘see’ Jesus after the crucifixion, despite Paul’s erasing that story in his account. Chilton then emphasizes the tradition that Mary is the ‘Apostle to the Apostles’.

Chilton writes:

“… Mary is the first person to see Jesus, and in John, she sees Jesus himself, although she is hysterical and doesn’t recognize him at first (John 20:11-18). Only when he speaks her name does she realize that she is speaking to her rabbi, and so she cries out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni’ (which is to say, “Teacher”) (20:16). She must have reached out to Jesus, because he says (v. 17), “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the father. But proceed to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father, my God and your God.” Mary departs and is the first person to say, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). It is her experience that ultimately teaches the other disciples how to see Jesus as well…”

P. 130

Mary Magdalene: A Biography

Apostle to the Apostles …

Bruce Chilton, a professor of Religion at Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson and a priest at the Free Church of Saint John in Barrytown, New York, has written a new piece on Mary Magdalene.

Chilton takes on the challenge of trying to construct a biography of Mary in order to situate her more properly within and without the traditional images we have of her from scripture, drama, and the arts.

The sparse details in the Gospels are but clues to her identity. Many people have tied her to other unnamed women in the Gospels in order to produce a sketch of the person so important to the post-resurrection period of Christianity.

…. I’ll post more after finishing reading the book.

Vows - holy orders and marriage

Vows: The story of a Priest; a Nun and their son, by Peter Manseau.

Peter Manseau writes of the complications of being the son of a priest and a nun – parents who committed themselves to the church and thence to each other and their family.

How so?

William Manseau was ordained a priest on Feb. 2, 1961 by Richard Cardinal Cushing. Manseau served the Archdiocese of Boston as a parish priest. On June 14, 1969, he married Mary Doherty, a professed member of the CSJ.

In the wake of the reforms of Vatican II, Manseau and Doherty walked away from one life to another in search of their vision of the emerging church. That vision is yet to be.

Their son, Peter, writes now of the early years and the call to a vocation and the pre-Vatican II church environment and ethos. Peter describes the separate journeys of his dad and Mom in their struggle to find the path that God called them to.

From his father’s own writings, in July of 1968, “ … O Father, deep within my being I feel a call to follow you in a new way – trusting beyond knowledge that it is right – it is so insistent – Lord Jesus, accomplish your will in me. Whatever it may be. I am bewildered as to which course to follow…” p. 192

Earlier, Manseau had said that “ …I had come to a junction in my life … when I really felt that in order to be faithful to the Gospel, I should enter into the deepest relationship possible for a Christian, marriage…” p. 191