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American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile

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this book for Amazon.

I hope i am not assuming incorrectly that most of the readers of this review are familiar to a greater or lesser to degree, with the thinking and works of Richard John Neuhaus. Most of those who like/love him will enjoy this book; most of those who don't, will not like this book. Fr. Neuhaus's oevre is massive; I can only refer you to his journal First Things, for a more comprehesive understanding of his thought.

although this book must have been in the works for months, it takes special poignancy in the light of the passing of its author on January 8, 2009. Neuhaus takes special care over the book's title, discussing what it means for a Christian to be in exile in America in 2009. He takes great care to compare this with Jews in exile in Babylon in the 6th century before Christ.

The theme of the book is for Christians to take hope, that as bad as things might seem now, for the triumph of the [Judaeo] Christian Messiah and his family the Church, things have been worse. Hope is probably the single most central theme of the book, which is different from an effervescent optimism, but is anchored on the guaranteed truth of the death and resurrection of Christ.

The book is more of an homilitic exhortation than a reasoned thesis. I think the author wasted too many pages on the thought of Richard Rorty, but they can straighten that out at their respective destinations. For Fr. Neuhaus, to despair is to believe that the exile Christians now feel is permanent; for progressives, it is to to think that the utopian thoughts/feelings we have had are permanent.

Fr.Neuhaus died Jan. 8, 2009. This is his last book and it read like a warning voice from the great beyond.. The "Babylon" of the title is not the "whore of Babylon" of excitable discussion but the place of Jewish exile from their home in Jerusalem. Fr. Neuhaus rolls his intellect over the question of how we should live as good citizens in exile from our true and promised home with our creator. You will find no better reflections on this question.

Especially enlightening is the chapter devoted to examining the philosophy of Richard Rorty. For those, like myself, who haven't been able to unravel the obtuse philosopher this chapter will be extremely rewarding in helping you see into the moral and philosophical confusion that so dominates our age.

When Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) died of cancer, America lost one of its most public (and conservative) Christian intellectuals. The arc of his life had the look and feel of providence. Born in Canada, he became a naturalized American. A high school drop out, he advised George W. Bush. Ordained in the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in the sixties he joined forces with Daniel Berrigan to engage civil rights issues as a pastor to a Brooklyn congregation of blacks and Hispanics. After Roe v. Wade in 1973, he began to turn rightward. In 1990 he converted to Latin Rite Catholicism, was ordained a priest, and founded the Institute on Religion and Public Life, and its journal First Things, whose mission statement is "to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society."

You don't have to agree with Neuhaus's unapologetic neo-conservatism to appreciate the vigor with which he engaged Christian identity in the public square. Yes, he denied communion to Catholic politicians whom he considered insufficiently pro-life. He refers to Pope John Paul "The Great" (74, 209). He vigorously defended natural law theory ("those things that we cannot not know"). He warmed up to Lincoln's notion of America as the world's "last best hope" and defended democratic capitalism. But there he is engaging Peter Singer's advocacy of infanticide and eugenics, or Richard Rorty's "liberal ironism" (this chapter alone is worth the whole book). He wonders aloud about the "new atheism" and whether atheists can be good citizens. He circles back to Augustine and Aquinas, Jefferson and Madison, then forward to Alasdair MacIntyre, Derrida, Newman and the Niebuhrs.

Drawing upon the theme of exile in Babylon, Neuhaus considers how believers must be very much in the world but not a worldly people, and how we must, as Jeremiah told the ancient Jews, "seek the welfare of the city" where God has placed us, and "pray to the Lord on its behalf." His "controlling argument" is that Christians live in hope between the Already of the kingdom inaugurated and the Not Yet of its consummation, rejecting both despair and presumption.

Despite his conservative boosterism, Neuhaus advises a "disciplined skepticism" about politics. He admits that Christian hope is "painfully provisional," and that theodicy admits to no "intellectually satisfying answer." Christians of both the mainline left and the conservative right, he says, have contributed to "the political corruption of Christian faith and the religious corruption of authentic politics." Faithfulness in exile can take many different forms. And whether believers have tried co-existence or accommodation with Babylon, separation, subversion, or even insurrection, Neuhaus credits all with good faith efforts, even though none of us have found ultimately satisfying solutions. And so we live in faith for what we have not and cannot see.

Early in the book, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote: "When I meet God, I expect to meet him as an American." When Fr. Neuhaus died in January of 2009, I expect that he did. As was evident from his writings, he was a good citizen of both the City of Man and the City of God.

AMERICAN BABYLON addresses this question of how to live as a Christian in an increasingly secularized society. Fr. Neuhause draws several parallels: the Israelites during the Babylonian captivity and the early Christians in pagan Rome--to name just a couple. Throughout the book runs the theme that we are "aliens and exiles" in this "eartly city" while on pilgrimage to our true, and heavenly, home. The author quotes the letter to Diognetus, written by a 1st century Christian to a pagan who was curious about how Christians perceived their place in the world. "Though they are residents at home in their own countries," it says, "their behavior is more that of transients; they take their full part as citizens, but they also submit to anything and everything as if they were aliens. For them, any foreign country is a homeland, and any homeland is a foreign country...The soul is captive to the body, yet it holds the body together. So Christians are held captive to the world, and yet they hold the world together."

Fr. Neuhaus also addresses the very real difficulties Christians face in today's American culture. He delves deeply into how certain modern philosophies have shaped a culture that is antipathetic to Christianity, yet holds out hope that--no matter what our current circumstances--the outcome has already been determined in our favor if we remain faithful. One example he gives is that of St. Thomas More, who--right before he placed his head on the chopping block--stated: "I am the King's good servant, but God's first." The great distinction is to live for "this world" only--or for the world to come. Living only for the here-and-now carries with it an existensial hopelessness; while living for eternity carries the promise of unending happiness.

While AMERICAN BABYLON was a thoroughly enjoyable and educational read, it was not what I'd call "light" reading. In some parts, Fr. Neuhaus's writing is ponderous comparable to the epistles of St. Paul. Once sentence of 31 words had 6 commas in it just to keep the ideas straight.

Also, his forays into the forests of competing philosophies can get you lost unless you follow him closely. The section on Richard Rorty is particularly complicated and convoluted--probably because Rorty's writings on "liberal ironism" were themselves so complicated and convoluted. But overall the book was hearty fare for those with the patience to chew well and digest slowly.

Father Richard John Neuhaus was one of the founders and a longtime editor-in-chief of the journal of religion, culture and politics "First Things." He was a giant of the promotion of religious discourse in the public sphere, and an unprecedented writer and public intellectual. His passing away in the early 2009 is a great loss to all of his many fans, as well as the readers of the First Things.

The "American Babylon" is his last book, and it was published posthumously. It touches on all of the major themes from his long and prolific opus: the role of religion in public discourse, the position and the role of religious people in an open and democratic society, the attitude that Christians should have towards the secular order in general and towards America in particular. He touches upon two main models of conceptualizing America in the light of Christian view of history: America as a new Babylon (that is, as a new exile for the People of God), and America as a New Jerusalem (i.e., the new Promised Land and a beacon upon a hill for all the other nations). Both of these models have seen their popularity rise and fall over the centuries, and Father Neuhaus does not endorse either one of them wholeheartedly. However, from the title of this book, you can guess in which direction he was leaning towards the end of his life.

This is a wonderful book by one of my favorite authors. Over the years I have learned a lot from him and am saddened that there won't be any more opportunities for him to put his invaluable insights into a written form. On the other hand, I cherish all that he had written that much more.

Non-fiction books tend to be collections of essays. This one never says that's what it is, but that's what it seems. Having avidly followed RJN's lively column in First Things, "The Public Square", I eagerly looked forward to reading this book.


"Babylon" in the title does not stand for all things bad or all tyrannical empires. It's a metaphor, drawn from the literal experience of the ancient Jews, of exile. The proof text is from the book of Jeremiah, in which the prophet counsels the Jewish people, "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." This haunting passage is presented in chapter one, which seems like an introduction, and is itself a tightly reasoned, lightly written essay. In chapter five, "An Age of Irony," he writes, "We have no alternative to this moment of time that is Babylon." The question then remains, to quote Francis Schaeffer's evocative title, "How shall we then live?" How shall we conduct ourselves during our time of exile?

At this point, one may expect a brief dissertation on the spiritual way of life, or the precepts of the Bible. One does not get it. What one does get in this chapter is a discussion of "liberal irony" and Richard Rorty, which led one reviewer to remark that the book is somewhat Rorty-heavy. It's actually only one chapter, but does seem out of place. Why is it there? Because, notes RJN, this is one view of how to conduct our time in exile. This view led to, or influenced, postmodernism and deconstructionism, and proved widely influential among people who wouldn't use those words and have only a passing acquaintance with the theory. Many would class it as a breed of nihilism.

The first chapter presents this interesting take on Babylon. The second,"Babylon Then and Now", looks at the Jews' historic exile, and St. Augustine's idea of the two cities, and draws evocative comparisons with both the present day, and the American founding. Then you'd expect a bit more on that last topic, which is the subject of chapter three. The framers of the Constitution, he says, were consciously making a nation for citizens with "dual loyalties": to both God and the nation. Chapter four is RJN at his best, and suggests an extended and probing "Public Square" essay. Chapter Six, "Salvation is from the Jews", is again a tight, thoughtful, engaging essay that manages to tie together topics touched on elsewhere in the book, while remaining classic RJN.

Chapter seven, "Politics for the Time Being", is actually a brief, informative, and insightful essay on bioethics. The last chapter, "Hope and Hopelessness" sums up, in the manner of an essay, by repeating earlier, salient points. The book has by this time ranged widely over RJN's favorite topics, however, and as such forms his treatise of last thoughts, too lively and ungainly to be so summarily tied up. Read as a collection of diverse essays, American Babylon spans the breadth and depth of the late RJN, one of the liveliest and most thoughtful minds of our generation, from the first to the last things.

From the beginning of the Christian movement to modern times where's been arguments about what it means to say that Christians are 'in but not of the world'. AMERICAN BABYLON is the last work by theologian Richard Neuhaus and considers the sentiment, defining Christianity in modern America and considering how Christians are a people 'out of place' and alien in America. An intriguing discussion that any Christian or spirituality library will find thought-provoking.

Anyone familiar with Father Neuhaus and his prior books and writing style will NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. He lays out the present situation facing all Christians in society and of course also every other member in relation to the declining moral and culture we are living thru. Truly thought provoking and would be an excellent choice for a Book Club discussion group.

Sadly this is Fr.Neuhaus Final book,a wonderful tome. Unapologetic and that's the way it should be, Catholicism does not change with the Currents,She The Church Does not have to.I read Catholic Matters and then I read this Book,and while this book at times can be more deeper(at least to me compared to the last book) that should not deter any Christian,Catholic or Not from picking it up and reading.It takes on Richard Rorty and "Liberal Ironism" there is a full chapter on that,The book's argument is Augustinian in nature and notes that we should not get too attached to our place here,our final place is elsewhere.

This is Father Neuhaus' final book. It is an informal essay describing life in America as a Catholic. The tone is quite relaxed and laid back. Fr. Neuhaus discusses many facets of what it is like to be a Catholic in America in this day and age. Some topics that he addresses include the (false) notion of separation of Church and State, whether or not an atheist can be a good citizen, and the writings of Richard Rorty. I learned a lot from the chapter devoted to Rorty. I didn't know who he was before reading the book, but I learned that he is a huge name in what I might call "American skeptical intellectualism" but what he called "ironism." The book is an easy and relaxed read, one which should appeal to all traditional Christians and Jews alike.