My husband can be heard around our house muttering the utterly oxymoronic words "too many books" on numerous occasions. I do try and keep my bibliophilic nature in check- but what am I to do? The Holy Father's book Jesus of Nazareth has finally appeared in English and it looks very good reading indeed.
What is even more tempting amazon (UK) are offering it together with Scott Hahn's new book Reasons To Believe. I already possess the 'wall of Hahn' with shelves laden with his tapes and books covering almost a whole wall in my house,
and here I am faced with yet more temptation.
This is further complicated by the fact that Into Great Silence has been released on DVD.
What is a girl to do?
There is some discussion in Catholic blog-o-sphere on how 'infallible' Pope Benedict's book on Jesus is. Well, I doubt it could stictly be called infallible and he tries to make that clear in the introduction, but here is a book by a man who has immense knowledge and a very real understanding of Christ. He is someone who has integrity and genuine holiness along with an intellect that has been shaped by discernment through prayer- so I would trust him.
There has been a plethora of 'real' Jesus books over recent years and I have read none of them, mainly because the blurb makes it quite clear that this is not the 'real' Jesus at all, but the author's wishful thinking about who Jesus ought to have been.
Scott Hahn's book gets good reviews on amazon and I am tempted to buy it-but I do have so much of his stuff I wonder if this book really will say anything new. I love his tuff- yes, even the appalling puns- as he writes for the bog-standard-still-don't-quite-get-it-all Catholic like me.
And then there's Into Great Silence. I saw this when it came to the UK. WHAT an amazing experience! It seems to follow the daily routine of Divine Office while overlaying it on a year in the life of the monks-winter to winter.
Kids calling....later...
1 comment:
LOL! I love that phrase "the wall of Hahn!" I can sure relate to your love of books. I have many boxes of them in storage while I am living "between cardboard boxes" lol. The Pope's new book about Jesus is a gem. He does not have to invoke infallibility because it's true and valid without new dogma. For example, I just about did a jig with joy over his chapter about St John (The Johannine Question) because he addresses an accusation that has annoyed the dickens out of me for ages. That is, how could rustic rubes like the Apostles write in Greek and so forth so intellectually. Some people have tried to eat away at the credibility of the Gospels by being almost willfully dense on the subject of their writing skills. (See, I may not be as diplomatic as the Pope if I had written that chapter!) Anyone who has asked me I've told that they are forgetting two things, one being the apostles had access to disciples who could write beautifully and in multiple languages according to their dictation (duh) and also, as their calling evolved, they had access to new learning and probably became more erudite themselves than our average teenager today. So the Pope does his job and joy beautifully in this book, by writing from his base of faith and belief in the truth, and then gently filling in the outlines of views of Jesus by a balance of logic, faith, and scholarly prowess. I think you'll really enjoy the book. As far as buying too many good books, well, fortunately that's not one of the temptations the bible warns against ;-) I figure that's what credit card limits are for lol.
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