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Breaking Faith: THE POPE, THE PEOPLE, AND THE FATE OF CATHOLICISM, by John Cornwell
Free PDF Breaking Faith: THE POPE, THE PEOPLE, AND THE FATE OF CATHOLICISM, by John Cornwell
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From Publishers Weekly
After daring to challenge the legacy of Pope Pius XII in Hitler's Pope, Cornwell has taken on another daunting subject: the future of the church he left as a young adult and to which he later returned. This latest work mingles the author's personal memories and feelings with history, statistics and some analysis. Sometimes Cornwell tries to play the role of journalist, merely reporting how both sides view the current state of affairs in the church. But as one who is clearly identified with the liberal Catholic wing, he can hardly mask his displeasure with those who represent the church's conservative element, particularly the present pope. Overall, Cornwell paints a dark picture of contemporary Catholicism and lays much of the blame for it at the feet of John Paul II, a "master of spin" who he says has demoralized millions of Catholics by accusing them of sinful sexual conduct. Apart from getting a new pope, though, Cornwell is not particularly clear about what should be done to remedy the church's problems. On one hand, he concedes to conservatives their point that Catholicism can't survive by making itself look like other religions, but on the other he seems to be urging the church to conform to the world by adjusting its teachings on sexuality. Regardless, fellow liberal Catholics will find much here with which to commiserate, and those seeking a provocative viewpoint will not be disappointed. (Oct.)Forecast: Hitler's Pope spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. This title should get a sales boost from an October 1 appearance on the Today show and a four-city author tour.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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From Library Journal
In this semiautobiographical work, a committed Catholic assesses the current state of affairs within Catholicism. A British historian, contributor to the international Catholic weekly the Tablet, and noted commentator on decidedly more liberal Catholic issues, Cornwell (Hitler's Pope) takes a respectful yet critical look at the pontificate of John Paul II and the church he has created over the past 25 years. Issues of sexuality, morality, the ordination of women, participation in sacramental and liturgical observances, lack of religious vocations, and the centralization of power in the Roman Curia are addressed with the critical tone of someone who clearly has a passionate love for both the institution and its people. Cornwell discloses his religious journey with great honesty while confronting those who seek to discredit his analysis. He painstakingly measures the divisions and contradictions within Catholicism yet gives credit where appropriate, portraying the church as a vital channel for good despite some glaring flaws of practice and policy. A provocative, deeply personal, and intelligent book; recommended for public and academic libraries. John Leonard Berg, Univ. of Wisconsin, Platteville Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (October 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670030023
ISBN-13: 978-0670030026
Product Dimensions:
6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.7 out of 5 stars
17 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#453,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
John Cornwell has written important (and sometimes controversial) books such as Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII,A Thief in the Night: Life and Death in the Vatican, and The Pontiff in Winter: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John Paul II, as well as the memoir Seminary Boy. He begins the book by stating, "My readers... have a right to know where I am coming from... I was born and raised a Catholic, and I spent seven years in seminaries before abandoning a vocation to the priesthood in my early twenties, and, eventually, as a matter of conscience, Christianity itself... I was a happier, better person without a belief in God. I did not look back... I had reason to regret an ovedisciplined youth, but I had also benefited from a privileged Catholic education." (Pg. 6)He wrote in the first chapter of this 2001 book, "John Paul's pontificate has been assailed by a grim accumulation of woes: defections, plummeting Mass attendance, a collapsing priesthood, conflicts over a host of moral and jurisdictional issues, the decline of Catholic marriage, and expanding Catholic divorce rates... bishops are at odds with the Vatican over centralized authority; the faithful are battling... over issues such as pastoral and liturgical participation, sexual morality, the status and involvement of women, the strictures that prevent divorced Catholics from full communion... This book, which reports on the critical condition of the institutional Church, argues that despite the persistence of faith, a thirst for spirituality, and enthusiasm for good works among the billion strong Catholic faithful, John Paul is leaving the Catholic Church is a worse state than he found it... The Pope and the Vatican are not inclined to consider their own shortcomings and weaknesses, their own part in the plight in which the Church finds itself..." (Pg. 2-3)He also admits, "My Catholic identity---which I intend to keep, come what may---is... for me, a daily creative action and interaction with the world, like a language. First and foremost I am a Christian, but my Catholic expression of Christianity, which I consider a special privilege of grace as well as accident of birth, parenthood, and education, is a way of using my imagination in prayer, in the liturgy, and in the work and encounters of everyday life, in reaching out to God, and being reached by God." (Pg. 87) He adds, "When I began to go to church again after breaking faith twenty years earlier, I felt personally and belatedly the full force of a despondency shared by many at the deterioration and adulteration of traditional Catholic worship." (Pg. 90)He notes, "Three-quarters of Catholic Americans... think that EXTRAMARITAL sex is always wrong. And while three in every four Catholics thought PREMARITAL sex was always wrong in 1963... by 1994 only one in six American Catholics believed that premarital sex was always wrong. What is more, when unmarried Catholics engage in sex they do so more frequently than their average non-Catholic fellow Americans." (Pg. 123) He adds, "between 1989 and 1996, the annulments in the United States indicated that 6 percent of the world's Catholics received 75 percent of the world's annulments." (Pg. 134)He observes, "In their attempts to work freely and constructively many Catholic women have decided to work outside Catholic institutions. [Elizabeth] Schüssler Fiorenza eventually left Notre Dame for Harvard; Rosemary Radford Ruether went to the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ... Uta Ranke-Heinemann, after losing her Catholic teaching license, was awarded the chair in Church history at Essen University..." (Pg. 190)For those interested in thoughtful criticism from "within" the Catholic fold, Cornwell's book will be appreciated.
'Breaking Faith' is John Cornwell's essay about the Church being torn out between two contradictory movements. On the one hand, exclusivity - the belief that Church is the infallible and only way to salvation, and that its teaching are God's truth, and thus objectively correct. On the other hand, the Pluralism of the Western world, where secularism and respect for other beliefs are consistently preached, though inconsistently practiced.Cornwell does not hide his views - he is a Liberal, and this book is written from a Liberal perspective. But the bias is easy enough to overcome, as the issues are the same for both conservatives and liberals.In a short, easy to read and Journalistic book (unfortunately lacking the substantial scholarship of Cornwell's better known Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII), Cornwell presents some main areas of conflict in the Church - including the issues of homosexuality, the truth of other religions, papal infallibility and the making of saints. In each, essentially the same battle is fought - between the pluralists and the conservatives.The subtitle of the book I hold in my hand is 'Can the Catholic Church Save itself?' The answer if obviously yes - the Roman Catholic Church is the oldest institution of mankind. It has survived the fall of an Empire, the disappearance and reappearance of science, immense corruption, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. It has survived loss of Earthly power and two world wars, the rise of Nationalism, Fascism, Communism and Capitalism. It will survive this age and its problems as well.The question is, what will it do to survive, and where will it survive. Cronwell believes that the Church should open up, be more pluralistic, inclusionist and down to earth. He believes it must change.Personally, I think he is wrong. If the Church will surrender the mysticism and exclusionism it currently practice, it will lose much of its power over its believers. Like reform Jews, relaxed Catholics will merge into the general Judeo-Christianity of the Western world. The pluralists are lost to the Church on any event - it is the core believers who will remain with the Church in the future. The Fundamentalists and conservatives are the basis, the 'loyal consumers' of the Church, if you will, and it is them it must guard. The growth of the Church must inevitably take place in the less pluralistic parts of the world - the third world. There, the zeitgeist is probably more suitable for an exclusionist Church then in the Western world.One interesting question, that Cornwell fails to explore, is whether there will develop an official movement, whose members will consider themselves Catholics but refuse to follow dictates from Rome. In an unorganized fashion, this is true already, witness the case of 'Dogma' director, Kevin Smith. Smith's movie is critical of basic Catholic themes and ideas, and would certainly not be sanctioned by the conservative official Church. But Smith considers himself Catholic nonetheless. Will we see churches which will carry out things the official Church does not approve (like ordaining women priests), and yet still regard themselves as Catholic? And how will the Church react to such churches? Certainly, if there will only be a small number of such churches, the Vatican will ex-communicate them. But how will the Papacy react to a large movement of self proclaimed Catholics who disregard official Catholic preaching?Another interesting question is the high human cost of the Church's principled conservative stand. How many people suffer from AIDS because the Church refuses to sanction condom in Africa? How many people in the West suffer from the much tamer problems of the conflict between their Church and their society? And, perhaps most importantly, can the Church, while maintaining the general hard line, find a way to reach out for these people and elevate their misery?You will find no answers to these questions in this book. Ultimately, those are questions for Catholics to figure out, while outsiders such as myself watch with great interest. Frankly, I am not quite sure what outcome I prefer, but I learned much from this book and, whether conservative of liberal or not even Catholic, I think you will too.
This book reports on the contemporary state of the institutional church. It includes the the author's own confessional statements which help us to understand his perspective and criticisms of the Roman Church. It is a good assessment of the Church without the sensational overtones which I have so often found in books written by journalists examining the Roman Catholic faith. Cornwell introduces the notions and issues that surfaced at the time of the so-called Modernist Crisis. He does so wisely and reveals that his personal convictions are in sympathy with the thinking of these theologians. This gives the work philosophical credibility as opposed to mere opinion. The following pasage, found on pp 215/216, is typical of the observations and insight Cornwell shares with the reader throughout the book. "Pluralist, multicultural societies are a fact, and Catholics have to live in such societies by according more than mere tolerance for the convictions of their fellow citizens. Afer all, Catholics expect the same respect of others. Moreover, how can the world avoid destroying itself if its religionists cannot find a way of living together in harmony?...But Christian theologians rightly object that theirs is a Trinitarian God, a God that essentially expresses the truth of creation and salvation, and which is profoundly distinct from that of the God of Israel, or of Islam, or the Gods of the Hindus, or Buddhism. All the same, brave attempts have been made by Catholic theologians to find a basis for genuine respect." To my mind, in our time, a basis for such genuine respect may be found via an existential philosophy with roots in the thinking of the "modernist" theologians. I recommend this book to any serious philosopher or theologian.
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