Customer Reviews

Practicing Catholic: The Search for a Livable Catholicism

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dr. Ryan is able to put her considerable learning to the service of the general intelligent reader by lucidly setting out instances of historical change in church doctrine or practice on a subject, and relating the continuing 2000-year dialectic to current and personal experience. Each chapter clearly treats a particular topic; the author sees her religion as complex, paradoxical, sometimes perhaps frustrating but ultimately rewarding. Her scholarly research and summaries of recent problems (theological, demographic or scandalous) are equally illuminating. This is the most comprehensive--and most gracefully written presentation of the subject I have read; and the ending is full of hope, charity--and hard questions. I recommend this book to any thoughtful person who would like to see the Roman Catholic Church survive (with people) through the 21st century.

An honest, loving portrayal of the Catholic Church, discussing difficult changes that have been made in the past and making suggestions for changes that could (and the author seems to suggest should) take place in the future. Worth reading by anyone interested in the viability of the Catholic Church, as the author obviously is.

A beautifully-written book which serves as an inspiration for those of us struggling to remain Catholic in the world today. I applaud Dr. Ryan for her courage in taking the stand she has taken, and encourage anyone interested in seeing growth in the Catholic Church to give this book a try.

Far from being a diatribe against "truth" (as many of the negative reviews on this site might have you believe), this book is a very balanced and informed discussion of Church teaching. What this book does so well is to take key moral and social issues -- contraception, women's ordination, reproductive technology, etc. -- and to situate the Church's teaching about them in the context of history. Ryan clearly shows that many of the Church teachings on these issues reflect ancient views of life and science. She also shows how the discovery of certain scientific truths -- e.g., the discovery of the ovum, and the subsequent recognition that not every single act of sex is by its nature open to procreation -- have influenced Church teaching, in many cases causing those teachings to change (e.g, the Church has admitted that every act of sex does NOT innately have a procreative function, and has gradually acknowledged that the unitive aspect of intercourse is every bit as important as the procreative). She very rightly points out that new understandings in other aspects of human life and science -- for example, a clearer understanding of the causes of homosexual orientation -- may in time influence the teachings of the Church. Her book is a thoughtful call for such knowledge and understanding to be acknowledged and recognized by the magisterium.

What always amazes me is how unwilling certain Catholics can be to engage in any discussion about these matters. I would think that a concern for the Truth would lead us all to acknowledge that the fullness of revelation and God's plan for us is not yet completely understood. It wasn't so long ago, in Church time, that lending money at interest was believed to be a sin. Obviously, certain Church teachings have changed over time. If you claim that they haven't, you simply don't know your Church history. Ms. Ryan's book is a great place to start.

Read this if controversial topics like ordination of women and homosexuality in the church interest you. Initially I was absorbed in the opinions, thinking many were very sound and were valid. As I moved on, I became increasingly aware of the "American" tone of the book. Catholic communities in different societies are at different spiritual maturity and have different priorities. One country's search for "loyal dissent" may not be on another's agenda; feminist theology and inclusive language must not be assumed to be embraced by all women in other parts of the world.

The universal Catholic church is this incredible community of so many races and cultures. Remember this as you read this book. Be enlightened and exposed, but remember that not all Catholics are brought up in the same vein as an American Catholic and should not be. Read it and evaluate it based on the needs and spirituality of your own Church context. May I say, we don't necessarily have to blindly accept American religious imperialism.

I can certainly appreciate Professor Ryan's desire to see the Church declare a liberalized sexual theology. One sees a similar movement on the right, wherein conservative Catholics want to see the magisterium change its teachings on social justice, the death penalty, and just wars. It's pretty clear that, despite the left's repeated depiction of the Church hierarchy as some paleolithic conservative beast, the pope and bishops also happen to disappoint the fondest (i.e., the meanest) hopes of the American right as well. The question is whether the Church should be at the service of one of the American political ideologies, as Ryan would have it, or whether it should transcend them.

The problem with Ryan's thesis as I see it is that while it may seem perfectly reasonable and just to her to bracket and dismiss the church's teachings on, say, homosexuality, in doing so she cedes her capacity to cite the church's teachings against sweat shops or the death penalty in an argument on economic or criminal justice. I've seen conservative Catholics engage in the same kind of nuanced historical arguments to show that while John Paul II and the Catechism are perfectly clear on their opposition to capital punishment, we can historicize their position and still be pro-execution. Her method, in other words, is similarly employed by right-wing Catholics to justify rejecting social teachings that Ryan, I assume, would hold dear.

The end result is what is generally called Cafeteria Catholicism. Of the scores of doctrines laid out on the buffet, many Catholics want to walk through and put on their plate only those teachings which confirm their already-held secular-political beliefs. The problem, of course, is that such a scheme is nothing more than moral relativism, with each individual deciding on her own what moral teachings really matter and which she can ignore. Again, I am sympathetic. There are more than a few teachings in the Church that are difficult for me.

The larger issue is whether the teachings Ryan would have us dismiss are superfluous ornamentation to the architecture of the Church, or whether they are load-bearing walls upon which the structure depends. My own sense of the Church is that each moral teaching depends on and is depended on by several related teachings, kind of like a game of Jenga, and like Jenga, we remove a plank of the moral platform at the risk of having the whole edifice collapse.

Or to change metaphors: some Catholics see the Church as one might see a sweater knit of gold and green and brown and purple threads, only they don't like purple, so they find each purple thread and pull it out of the sweater. In the end, do they have their dream sweater, or just an unraveled mess?

This is an excellent, well-written book. It is written by a woman - which is progress for the Catholic Church, who have rarely let women speak on serious theological matters. But that is the only progress I can see. The same issues are being discussed, the same problems addressed, as were the questions which pushed me out of a Catholic seminary over 35 years ago. No progress, either theological or sociological, seems to have been made on the issues of birth control, or women in the clergy, or married priests, etc. The Catholic Church no doubt would see this as a positive characteristic, but the rest of the world has moved on -- and taken a lot of the Catholic faithful with them.

This is a good book. It's a shame that it could have been written almost word for word in the "60's.

Dr. Ryan is articulate and clearly well educated. She understands the issues facing American Catholics today and proposes solutions that originate in her deep and abiding faith. But the problem is that her approach and solutions are relativistic and, I must say, completely misguided. Infallibility of the ex chathedra Pope hurts ecumenicism so the Church should give it up? Gays and Lesibians have loving relationships so their marriages should be sacramentally allowed? Celibacy is causing a shortage of priests so it should be discontinued? Dr Ryan's logic is a slippery slope where the Catholic Church would give up any doctrine that is non-ecumenical or socially unacceptable in modern American society. I suppose Dr Ryan will next be calling for the Church to recant Mary's Immaculate Conception and Assumption. Perhaps Dr. Ryan would make a happy Episcopalean?

Another disgruntled Catholic who wants the church to change to fit her personal agendas. Eternal Truth no longer matters; pleasing ourselves, instead of God, is what would make this author happy. "Feel good" Catholicism is an outdatd, '60's concept that has been repeatedly shown not to work and this book sounds like a re-hash of those dated ideas. The Catholic Church never changes to fit the current era. Those that don't understand that know little of the Church and of history. That is part of the beauty of the Catholic Church. Don't buy her book but do pray for her.

She argues people can embrace Catholicism as a way of life without necessarily accepting official church teachings on issues such as artificial contraception, the ordination of women to the priesthood, divorce and homosexuality. This is so off base. Once you divorce your faith what else do you have. This is exactly why we have so many of the problems that we have today. People who choose to ignore church teaching (God's will) should find somewhere else to go - while I continue to pray for them. Mmm... can you say Martin Luther! The church also teaches about the final destination of those who outright rejects God's will. You need to implement a negaive rating so that I can give this one a negative 100 stars!