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Constantine's Sword and Papal Sin

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from: Erik Tarloff

An Ear for Music

Posted Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001, at 4:16 PM ET

Dear Katha,

Maybe it's like an ear for music. Some people seem to possess a natural instinct for religious belief, and some don't. You and I, by chance--and this absolutely was happenstance, not some atheistic conspiracy on the part of Slate's pinko editors--both seem to lack it, despite which we've been assigned to review these two books by two very devout Christians. I don't believe our religious incapacity has hurt our discussion since we've primarily restricted ourselves to issues raised by the books themselves, eschewing more general questions of faith. But it's obvious that many of our readers don't agree.

Still, a random sampling of "The Fray" has been sobering. Not so much because the Fraygrants have tended to disagree with us, or even because they've frequently done so in gratuitously personal and abusive terms. That's pretty much par for the course in this flame culture we're working in, dislike it though we may. No, what I've found interesting and disturbing is that, surrounding the small handful of serious and thoughtful letters, there have been large numbers from correspondents who seem cockily convinced they are in sole possession of the absolute truth. This confidence would be humbling except that so many of them disagree with each other, and disagree vehemently, about what that truth consists of. Since they can't all be right--they flatly contradict each other at almost every turn--most of them, by simple logic, must be mistaken even while issuing their ukases and anathemas. Any perusal of The Fray this week would suggest 1) this country no longer values civility or good manners and 2) there are a great variety of ways to be Catholic, or Christian, or even generically religious (would that be Unitarian?), despite which many people who so regard themselves seem willing to appoint themselves arbiters in matters of faith, virtual Grand Inquisitors.

One of the things I admire so much about both these books under review is the way their authors refuse to make any such claims or even evince tendencies in that direction. Neither discusses the taproot of his own faith--an unfortunate omission, to my mind--but both accept, implicitly and explicitly, that there can be many different routes to God and that no route is necessarily the right one or the best one. Both are on open-ended quests. Both demonstrate a certain humility before the immensity of the mysteries they are contemplating and before the majesty of the church to which they both still belong. Indeed, if one wished to propose a single error under which all the errors they separately enumerate are subsumed, it might be precisely this: The Catholic Church--or rather, some of those who have historically wielded authority within the Catholic Church--has shown insufficient humility, has manifested an arrogance about matters that are, at bottom, not so amenable to human understanding.

I don't mean to single out the Catholic Church, incidentally. These books are both written by Catholics and are both about Catholicism, so of course you and I have been concentrating on that faith in these discussions. It's not a result of anti-Catholic bias--contrary to what some Fraygrants have suggested--it's out of journalistic diligence. All religions that have successfully allied themselves with temporal power have been guilty of abuses in the name of dogma at one time or another. The Inquisition's burning of heretics at the stake is a useful trope because it's so vivid and because it's such a central image in the history of Western civilization, but jihads of various types and sustained by various faiths seem to be a fact of human nature and a constant in human history.

Nor, by the way, am I exempting Judaism as (predictably) many Fraygrants have darkly suggested. Of course, in one sense, the whole analogy is false; most of those writers, when adverting to Judaism, aren't really discussing the religion at all--they are talking about an ethnic group or in some cases the state of Israel. Where our comments about Catholicism have largely addressed matters of doctrine, what these correspondents have to say rarely concerns the Old Testament or Talmudic law, and it's not my impression that their observations are meant to apply to Sammy Davis Jr., say, or Elizabeth Taylor. Nevertheless, to the extent that this is a genuine concern for some readers, I'm happy to concede that the notion of a Chosen People is offensive and anachronistic and does everyone, Jew and gentile alike, a disservice.

I am reminded of Mel Brooks in his persona as the 2,000-year-old man recalling the world's very first national anthem. It went, "Let them all go to hell, except Cave 76." The same spirit that inspires xenophobia in the denizens of Cave 76 also animates riots among fans of rival soccer teams in England and South America and can also lead to exclusionary claims and triumphalist violence among religious sectarians.

And yet what's at issue in such disputes and rivalries is so fundamentally abstract and even chimerical that they defy common sense. Because, finally, we are confronted with conundrums too vast and too encompassing--and because the scale of the mystery is so beyond the human, so not us--anything that goes farther than mere awe represents an immense leap of faith, an act of pious speculation. Which, if I may return to my opening sentence today, is the reason why an ear for music may not, in fact, be a useful comparison. After all, not even the stone tone-deaf question whether the music is actually there.

This has been a fascinating exercise, but I wonder if you feel, as I do, that we might be ready for a less controversial topic next time.

All my best,
Erik

the book club
entries

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from: Erik Tarloff

An Ear for Music

Posted Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001, at 4:16 PM ET

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Constantine's Sword, by James Carroll and Papal Sin, by Garry Wills

Is the Catholic Church anti-Semitic? This week our critics examine James Carroll's Constantine's Sword and Garry Wills' Papal Sin.

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Reader Comments From The Fray:

[Notes from the Fray Editor: Did Slate ask the right people to review these books? Well, if the reviewers can criticize The Fray... try here, from Eric McErlain and here from Joseph F. McNulty. A very good discussion on Catholicism starts here--highly recommended. More from Peter Nixon (see below) here. In addition to the posts the Book Clubbers so disliked, there were many thoughtful, intelligent, reasoned contributions to excellent discussions (look for posts with stars and checkmarks). Epicuria says "the smart Catholics are inevitably dissident." CAE says the bad posters are Erik Tarloff's supporters: "You brought them out of the woodwork, they're on your side". Judge for yourself.

And the estimable Paul Lynch has this important theological point to make: "Katha Pollitt is mistaken in suggesting that any church sends people to hell. The Catholic church doesn't claim to, and any other body that does so claim, is rather outside the umbrella of Christianity. The Christian belief is that God makes these decisions."]

On the basis of what evidence does Ms Pollitt conclude that most Catholics are really Protestants at heart? Catholicism is more than the doctrine of the Real Presence, miracles, and a belief in the efficacy of relics (note that the Church does not even teach the latter point, although it doesn't deny the possibility). And I should add that a person who did not believe in the divinity of Christ wouldn't be a particularly good Protestant Christian either.

While its true that a large number of American Catholics have difficulties with certain aspects of how John Paul II has exercised his office, I see no evidence that they have rejected the institution of the papacy itself, a key point of distinction between Catholicism and the Orthodox and Protestant Churches. While theologians continue to debate how Christ is present in the Celebration of the Eucharist, there is no doubt that the Eucharist remains the focal point of Catholic worship. And while it is also true that recent developments in the theology of grace have forced us to rethink how the sacraments mediate divine grace, most Catholics that I know find that the sacraments continue to play a powerful role in making them open to the reality of that grace in our lives.

There is no doubt that on a number of issues, especially those related to gender and sexuality, a gap has developed between many sincere, committed Catholics and the hierarchy. That gap is regrettable and I think all Catholics would like to see it closed. I think if we are honest with ourselves, we have to reject the idea that all wisdom lies with the laity as much as we reject the idea that all wisdom lies in the hierarchy. But the idea that Catholics who have difficulties with some aspects of Church teaching are thereby automatically apostate is absurd.

Finally, I think that Ms. Pollit's assertions also do violence to the integrity of the Protestant Christian tradition, which is certainly more than "Catholicism lite." Protestantism has developed a distinct Christian tradition based on the primacy of Scripture, the personal relationship between the believer and Christ, and justification by faith. One does not enter into this tradition merely because one is skeptical about relics.

--Peter Nixon

(To reply, click here.)

Is Christianity Anti-Semitic? Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that Christianity is anti-any-other-belief, declaring through the Bible that all others are untrue and paths to damnation. No, not inherently, unless the Christian is extremely selective in how they interpret the Bible.

Speaking as a former Christian, current atheist and frequent target for extremely selective interpreters, it always strikes me as a bit silly to refer to 'Christianity' as if Christians were a homogenous mass, all with the same beliefs and feelings.

--Gilker Kimmel

(To reply, click here.)