BOOK REVIEWS

Great Catholic Reading


by Jay McNally

The Catholic Lifetime
Reading Plan
by John A. Hardon, S.J.
Grotto Press
P.O. Box 380175
Clinton Township, MI 48038-1075
$30 postpaid

    Does this complaint sound familiar? “There are few authentic teachers. ... As a result the children are growing up without instruction, and without formation, either by their parents or their teachers, in the Christian way of life, which they began to have and to know when they were baptized.” Of course it sounds familiar, as probably ever reader of The Catholic Faith is acutely aware. This was part of a report presented to bishops at the Vatican before the new catechism of the Catholic Church was commissioned. While the above complaint is one faithful Catholics today hear almost daily, this specific quote dates back 450 years ago, and the resultant catechism was The Roman Catechism, published in 1546, following the Council of Trent. It remains to this day one of the great resources for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Faith.
    Thus, just as history has repeated itself with the Vatican issuing a second catechism in 1992 (structured much as was the 1546 catechism), we see that the more things change the more they seem the same. So explains Father John Hardon, S.J., in his brilliantly constructed The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan (CLRP).
    Originally published in 1989, this clever 300-page survey of 20 centuries of some of the best Catholic writing has been updated and republished this year by Grotto Press, based in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit. This updated edition contain the edition of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church in its list of sources (along with the Bible, documents of Vatican II, “L’Osservatore Romano,” and The Roman Catechism).
    This is the first project of Grotto Press, which is actually a small group of young Catholics dedicated to distributing great Catholic literature. It is a handsome hardbound book, with an attractive dust jacket and an even more attractive price of $25 ($30 postpaid), which puts it within reach of anyone looking for friends and acquaintances, almost literally at any level of understanding of the Faith—from the established intellectual to an inquiring high school student.
    As everyone who is familiar with the prolific Fr. Hardon knows, he writes and lectures with extraordinary economy of words, in plain language anyone can understand. Despite his justified reputation as perhaps the greatest theologian in the English speaking world, he is neither pedantic nor pretentious. So, it is not surprising that the CLRP is very reader-friendly. It frequently seems that Fr. Hardon is simply carrying on a light conversation about the issues at hand.
    Indeed, he titled his introduction to the CLRP, “Conversation with the reader,” and in that introduction explains the book’s purpose “is to open up the treasury of wisdom found in the great Catholic writers over the centuries. ... It is an honest effort to offer a Great Catholic Books program to the public.”
    While Fr. Hardon’s intent is obviously that the reader will be enticed to read some of the recommended works of some of the 104 authors—and surely most readers probably will, eventually, if for no other reason because many of the works are must-reads anyway for any literate Christian—the CLRP can stand alone as a fascinating historical overview of some of the giants of Catholicism.
    In addition to the five sources mentioned, Fr. Hardon has chosen 104 authors, listed chronologically from St. Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote in the first century and died a martyr in the Roman Colosseum, to John C. Wu, a Chinese-American convert who died in 1986. The work of these authors, Fr. Hardon writes, present a basic and “balanced understanding of the Catholic faith as lived out for two millennia of Christian history.” Fr. Hardon devotes one or two pages to each author, explaining background about their personal lives, the theological and political context of their work, and the impact of their writing. He then lists the specially recommended titles of each author. (Fifty-seven pages at the end of the book are devoted to an exhaustive bibliography of each author, including the titles and names of publishers. For the serious academic this appendix alone is worth the purchase price).
    The authors themselves cover the gamut from highly educated theologians and philosophers of great acclaim like St. Thomas Aquinas or Christopher Dawson to those who have little academic bent at all, like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Therese of Lisieux. Some of the authors dealt entirely with spiritual issues (Catherine of Siena), others were philosophers and some were novelists or poets (Hilaire Beloc, G.K. Chesterton, Chaucer and Cervantes). Some of the more recent novelists won Nobel Prizes for literature and some achieved popular acclaim.
    The controversies the authors faced frequently involved one or another of the seemingly countless heresies the Church has faced over the centuries. The dates change, but the main story seems to be the same. Fr. Hardon—as historian— notes over and over again there were certain common circumstances for many these great apologists, mystics, teachers and story tellers: Few came from wealth; many were converts; many suffered significantly in defense of their Faith—some were martyred; all had an abiding confidence in the authority of the pope.
    Fr. Hardon chose each of these 104, in part, for what he calls their “relevance” to our age. “There are issues being raised today, and ideas being challenged in and outside the Catholic Church, that have long since been raised or explored by some of the greatest minds in history,” he writes. Fr. Hardon frequently speaks in superlatives about the pioneering work of men long dead, citing their work as unexcelled with time, despite the efforts of many subsequent geniuses. For example, “No one has improved on St. Justin’s explanation of free will, immortality and need for the sacraments,” Fr. Hardon writes of this second-century great.
    The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan is a remarkable achievement that belongs on everyone’s bookshelf. It offers a splendid look at the richness of the faith and can be, literally, a life-long reference work for everyone with an interest in issues of the ages.
    We await the second offering of Grotto Press.

Jay McNally is managing editor of Credo, an independent Catholic newspaper published in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as well as Executive Director of Call to Holiness, Inc.

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(© Copyright 1998, As translated into HTML for Catholic Information Center on Internet by Jill Gooler 9/19/98)