Customer Reviews

God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling

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Anyone who sets to stepping into William F. Buckley, Jr.'s giant shoes by borrowing the title "God and Man at . . ." undertakes quite a task. I am happy to report, though, that Judge pulls it off pretty well.
Short disclaimer--I was a classmate of his at Georgetown Prep. Having said that, I was not a part of the group of friends he writes about. It is fair to say that I knew more of "Mr. Judge" during our school years than I actually knew him. Suffice it to say that he is obviously now a much different person than he was 22 years ago.
The fact that I wasn't part of his "group" serves as a jumping-off point. While he doesn't mention this in the book, Georgetown Prep is part boarding school, and about 20% of the students (at least that was the number back then) board, and I was one of them. So what he observed between 8 and 5, I lived 24 hours a day. As he writes, there was really something of a dichotomy among the Jesuits--largely based on their age.
For example, my Spanish teacher was of the old-school, WWII generation, and he tolerated no nonsense. He was, unsurprisingly, also a splendid teacher, and when I told him that I was applying for a ROTC scholarship, he cheered me on. Contrast that with "Father Macabee," about whom Judge writes. "Macabee" was no more than 10 years older than we were (and truth be told, he was still a Jesuit scholastic, i.e. not yet ordained), and he was horrified when I told him about my ROTC plans. Of course, as Judge reports, "Macabee" left the Jesuits soon thereafter.
Unfortunately, not all of the "Macabees" have left. Indeed, one reads elsewhere about the "Gallery Owners," who man most of the administrative and theology positions in Jesuit education, and comes to the sad conclusion that they are all who are apparently left in the Order--or at least that they are at the top of the hierarchy.
I can also verify the story about Bernie Ward's "sex ed" class. All that I remember of it was that we learned every imaginable form of birth control (including abortificient methods, of course) and read Betty Friedan and the like. It was sex education by Alan Guttmacher, rather than by "Humanae Vitae" or "Love and Responsibility" (by the future Pope John Paul II).
Indeed, like Judge, it was not until years later that I really began to learn the faith. In my case it was during my years at Notre Dame Law School. Perhaps that was nothing more than the teacher appearing when the student was ready, but I tend to think it was more than that. At NDLS I had professors who, rightly, challenged me into questioning whether the law's power could ultimately be separated from the question of God. And my inquiry into my faith took off from there.
In fact, a moment that I still chuckle about is when, about 4 years out of law school, Fr. Benedict Groeschel (whom Judge also mentions) was giving a multi-day mission at a local parish, and I attended several of the talks. As a result of one of his talks--encouraging us to go reel in a "big fish" back to Confession--I talked to one of our local judges, a lapsed Catholic before whom I appeared daily, about going to see the good Father. The judge didn't bite (although it seemed to amuse him). But I digress.
Let me be clear. There were good men at Georgetown Prep. I think of Steve Ochs and Bob Barry, for example, both of whom are still there. But they are not Jesuits. What Catholic schools must have are a critical mass of clerics who embrace the faith, and that is what I fear is lacking. And Judge is correct that certain works--I would add C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" and various encyclicals to Judge's list--ought to without question be included in any young Catholic's education.
It would be quite a shame to see the academically "elite" Catholic schools, like Georgetown Prep, go the way of Harvard, Yale, Duke, etc., and completely lose their religious soul. As it stands now, with the impression of the Jesuits that I currently have, even if I could afford to I would not send my sons to Prep. And that is a shame.

Many of the author's experiences mirrored my own. If you are well-versed in Catholicism, the extensive quotes from it's great writers may irritate you. For me, they were like water in the desert. Like Judge, I have only recently become aware of the richness of the writing of Catholics throughout the ages. His book served as a valuable resource to other authors who do not spend all their time bashing Catholicism, but actually examine its doctrine within a greater spiritual context. In other words, it is a relief to find authors who examine the spiritual rationale for church doctrines, instead of advocating a change to universal truths simply because they are incovenient to modern life.

Like the author of this book, I also went Georgetown Prep and Catholic University. Religious education at GP was not very memorable--which could also be said of every other Catholic school--and religious education at CU could be downright heretical.

However there was at GP, one teacher who bucked the trend and still dealt in the old Catholic wisdom. He was Fr. John Nicola who had been the consultant to the movie, "The Exorcist." In the late `70s/early `80s, Fr. Nicola taught Thomistic Philosophy and an analysis of the Ten Commandments. I'm surprised Fr. Nicola was not included as a trend-bucking teacher among the pseudonymous faculty in this book as the author should certainly have been aware of him.

Otherwise, for those who haven't yet realized there's a revolution going on, this book an OK introduction to contemporary Catholic issues, even if it is a gush of names, titles, biographies and extensive quotes from other works (about 40% of the text). If you have ready other book, article, web site about what went wrong in the Church during the misinterpretation of Vatican II, you will find nothing new here.

Judge takes dead aim at a vaunted institution and squarely connects. His criticism of the curriculum is valid and the delightful adventures he speaks of have more than a ring of truth--since I too experienced both as a classmate of Judge's. Georgetown Prep would be wise to heed the author's advice and do the right thing: hire Mark Judge as a religion teacher.

This is a remarkable book from a very courageous fellow. As the other reviews show, the book manages to show a lot about what changes happened in the Catholic church and educational systems, especially throughout the 60s and 70s. But the book does more than this. It actually gives insight into how these separate paths (orthodox, "progressive," and so on) existed side by side. Even though the author was kind of railing against liberals, you can see that he actually tried to get inside their head and understand them for what they were trying to accomplish. I don't mean the book is soft (it's a little over the top), but it's not just Ann Coulter screaming at people. It's really a good look at shifting cultures. I recommend it highly.

I am not a big fan of Catholic schools, having spent too many years in them, especially as a young kid. But precisely because I spent a lot of time in them, I know that the contention of this book that the environment amounted to a sort of functional atheism is just false. History always has contradictions, and we should not white-wash them. But we surely should not not engage in the inverse either, just to make cheap points. As to Georgetown itself I think his Buckley-esque animadversions about the place are just fluff, and miss the whole point. Georgetown should be congratulated for their more open stance towards many things, not blamed. I am thankful for their more tolerant view of gay issues, and for the presence of Joseph Palacios, who is working for Marriage Equality. Also, in the past, before returning to working again in research and scholarship, I made my living for many years as a practitioner of the Rolfing Technique, a type of physical therapy for chronic pain. And one of my most pleasant clients was John DeGioia, who is now president of Georgetown. I was happy I was able to resolve the vertebral fixation that caused his pain. But I was also very happy that this very well-placed guy was very accepting of me as a gay man. That says a lot about Georgetown, in a good way!

Good critique, but lacking in solutions. Also, would've liked a bit more detail on author's reversion. My intent was to gift this to my fallen away Catholic-educated children, but after reading it I hesitate, for it is much more a condemnation than an inspiration. I think I will gift it to a few older reverts,though, who will appreciate the sketches of baby-boom cathechesis.

Mark Gauvreau Judge's "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" has a lot going for it. Judge is a very unique voice in his generation. He is a talented and articulate writer and paints a memorable and often laugh out loud picture of life at an exclusive prep school around 1980. It is a fascinating read of one person's quest of looking for God in all the wrong places. With help from a supporting cast of dozens of powerful and articulate traditional Catholic thinkers, "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" elaborates on the power of Christianity and conservative Catholicism at length and in wonderful detail. Judge's book makes a case for a very personal and profound vision of the author's faith.

"God and Man at Georgetown Prep" is a compelling read. It is also sometimes a haphazard and contradictory mix of the intellectual and the glandular; of the cogent argument and the primal scream; of the open minded discourse and the conservative rant.

And when it degenerates into rant mode, it unfortunately brings along much of the baggage associated with such a paradigm. That baggage includes looking at the world in stark black and white and pigeonholing people as heroes or villains based on little more than stereotypes. It lives in a world that is less populated by characters than by cartoons.

Coming to terms with one's own belief is challenging enough for an individual, and Judge makes a great case for his own spiritual renewal. His storytelling talent is so good that it comes dangerously close to seducing the reader into missing the underlying thrust of the book. In essence, "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" falls in line behind a long line of philosophers and theologians who attempt to make the case that their version of God and religion are the right-and perhaps only-one.

Trying to take that personal belief and argue its universal merits (or at least convince anyone who picks up this book) is a task of, if you'll excuse the pun, Biblical proportions. Over two centuries ago, the philosopher Voltaire summed up the hazards of the task when he quipped, "If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated."

One could almost even argue that the Bible itself isn't up to such a task, given that its text is the basis for dozens of religious sects and even cults to empower themselves and trumpet their own mutually exclusive version of the "truth."

At their best, such attempts made in good faith spur thoughtful dialog. At their worst, they deteriorate into self-indulgent arrogance and gratuitous vilification of opposing views. Where "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" most needs to have an underlying tone of sincere theological discourse, it feels more like a theological smackdown.

"God and Man at Georgetown Prep" paints a picture of an almost fascist "liberal"education the author endured during his high school years (not everyone there at that time walked away with that conclusion, nor 25 years later, do they see it that way-see below). Given that we all experienced life through the myopic vision of adolescence, and that there could be at least a little truth in that assertion, this writer will gladly concede him that point. (Let it also be noted that there are many reasons for alternate viewpoints to be included in education-especially from a school that makes public expectations that its graduates be "open to growth", but the merits of that argument are beyond the purpose and space limitations of this review.)

However, there is a common and tragic misconception that the opposite of a flaming liberal viewpoint (if that indeed was the case) is an equally conservative polemic. This writer would like to make a rather bold observation: The liberal extremist has convinced himself beyond a shadow of a doubt of his self-guilt and is obsessed with imposing it on everyone else around him. The conservative extremist, however, is equally obsessed with his own self-righteousness/salvation and equally driven to impose that on everyone else around him.

And, here's the dirty little secret: both are cut from the same cloth: there is a common thread and it is extremism. The true antithesis of extremism is not the corresponding point on the other end of the bell curve: it is balance found in the center. Balance makes for convincing and airtight arguments; balance can handle characters in their complexity without having to beatify or demonize them; balance is also a pretty nifty rhetorical tool for a writer trying to convince the reader of his absolute moral authority when he attempts nothing less than the Herculean task "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" tries to accomplish.

The basic argument of "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" would have been helped by a more objective and sociologically driven approach with the observation that the early 1980s were part of the reverberation of the 1960s plummeting out of control, that the pendulum is constantly swinging, sometimes from one excess to the other. Mistakes-and course corrections-are constantly necessary for a living breathing entity, whether it is a fully formed human being or an educational institution 200+ years old. There is a term for this-the magis, the continual search for the greater, something Georgetown Prep articulates in its goals and expectations. As Mr. Judge chronicles his own growth out of the intellectual primeval mud, he fails to acknowledge that others-even the radical teachers he disdains, not to mention those dreaded hippies-may also have been on similar journeys. And, those journeys may also legitimately have taken them to different places, including different spiritual directions.

As with other arguments of this type, some of the charges "God and Man at Georgetown Prep" levels against the enemies it creates can be leveled back at itself. For example: it's more than a little disconcerting to see him relate his own discovery of the love of God beginning during a beach week liberally marinated with chasing girls and lubricated with large amounts of alcohol. This sounds alarmingly like the free love and mind altering substances of those awful people he quickly backhands and dismisses. This writer can appreciate his conclusion that perhaps in that environment came the "discovery of new modes of love". This writer also observes that the Jesuitical concept of "finding God in all things" is apparently not afforded seekers whose personal visions take them down other paths.

In the interest of full disclosure, this writer personally knew most of the characters mentioned from Georgetown Prep and happened to be a part of campus around the same time as the author. He has to make the observation that to try to capture wonderful priests and complex human beings such as "Fr. Moon SJ", "Fr. Hart SJ" and "Fr. Boxer SJ" in the almost trashy anecdotes and quotes cited does them-and Judge's larger target Georgetown Prep-a gross disservice. It's quite possible that some of the most outrageous moments Judge narrates happened just as he described. However, they are tiny snapshots in a much larger, richer picture. Georgetown Prep is almost as old as the United States. Common sense dictates that an institution that old with as little to offer as intimated in Judge's world would have died a natural death long ago.

Judge makes a valiant attempt to argue his vision and this reviewer has little doubt about the sincerity of the author or the power of his experience. He makes a wonderful case for himself. He is stepping into a particularly hazardous minefield when he attempts to impose those constraints outside of his own scope.

I would be glad to wager that there are many Buddhists, Muslims, non-Catholic Christians, Hindus, (not to mention other Catholics who don't take his sharp turn to the right), etc. who would be more than happy to sit him down and elaborate on the power of their own spiritual journey and argue that their experiences are just as powerful in a different way and that--horror of horrors--their pathway to God is just as valid. There is an entire universe of philosophers and theologians who are just as eloquent and powerful in their own-and alternate-views of God and Catholicism as those Judge quotes.

It is quite telling-and also a shame-that one of the first things Judge does in the introduction of this book is immediately dismiss Buddhism--which has a core principle that there are "a million pathways to God." That raises the stakes by immediately turning his argument into "all or nothing". That would be an awesome task under the best of circumstances. The underlying thesis suffers too many self-inflicted wounds to be one of them.

"God and Man at Georgetown Prep" is an entertaining read of a compelling spiritual journey. But, it is only one of them. The reader should keep in mind that there are at least 999,999 other ones.

This is a Great read and I would recommend it to anyone.

Judge is an idiot. The Jesuits at Prep at the time he was there were shining exemplars for the students who went there. Judge's problem is that he, like most neocons, likes "easy Christianity" - the kind served up by the Pat Robertsons and James Dobsons of the world who willfully forget that Jesus preached a lot of tough talk about the rich and everyone's duty to the poor and the requirement to turn the other cheek.

The neocons love their taxcuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor and their wars of choice. Idiots like Judge didn't like the Jesuits at Prep because they preached the actual teachings of Jesus and not the watered down pap that neocons like Judge would rather hear.