Customer Reviews

God and Caesar: Selected Essays on Religion, Politics, and Society

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The ten essays in this short book are presented both as a criticism of 21st century secular life and a defence of modern Christianity, especially Catholicism. Throughout the book positions and conclusions are presented as rational outcomes of underlying fundamental philosophical argument or axiom. Hence the essays are intended to convince by appealing to cognition rather than relying on faith in a belief or direct instruction from scriptural revelation. Cardinal Pell clearly recognizes the desirability of logical reasoning in presenting religious arguments to an increasingly educated free world, but is ever ready to fall back on faith and Christian scripture when evidence fails to support Catholic teaching.

The chapter on "God, Evolution, & Consilience" is an example. Pell acknowledges evolution as fact, and counters with the statement that "God ... is an answer to the question `why is there a universe?' ". Hence there is no conflict between evolution and religion and "God is not a scientific hypothesis that might rival evolution". This position is far removed from the biblical beliefs of many Christians (and all Muslims). It introduces newish questions and predicates a God which is very different from the personal creator relied on for the past two thousand years by Christian religions. Pell does not address the latter issues.

In 2008 many millions of Australian taxpayers dollars were donated to World Youth Day in Sydney. WYD was a week long Catholic Church event which included a visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The constitution of the Australia which is George Cardinal Pell's domain does not mandate separation of Church and State (as in the USA). Consequently, non religious persons, including a significant percentage of the population who actively disagree with organized religion of all types, are forced to pay taxes to support WYD, religious indoctrination of children and forego income tax on companies owned by religious entities as well as property taxes on vast real estate holdings. The scale of these abuses is enormous and the Catholic Church sets the pace. Hence it is ironic in the extreme that Pell's book is titled "God and Caesar". My impression is that one reason for publishing this volume in 2007 was to subtly reinforce the justification for this financial scam. For example, the first five chapters (eg. Law and Morality, Church and Politics, Catholicism and Democracy) are really just skilful special pleading to reinforce the status quo. In Australia there is much rendering to God national wealth that belongs to Caesar.

In conclusion: only for believers.