New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive ERA Book

My review of "God's Choice" will not be entirely fair. After all, I had bought the book with expectations that it would be more directed toward the endeavors of the Catholic Church to reckon with a society that is rapidly becoming "post-Christian" than what turned out to be the case. Modern Western civilization, with faith in science rapidly replacing faith in God, has only vestigial elements of genuine Christianity left in its cultures. To label it a "post-Christian" culture is, in practices and values, quite accurate.

But so far as the book being reviewed is concerned, it was a disappointment to me because of its very intensive discussion of political aspects of the Catholic Church. Much space was devoted to technical matters regarding selecting the new pope (Pope Benedict XVI), and the prevailing essence of the book was technical and political, rather than spiritual or theological. Other readers might think differently about the book. For the purposes of the book, it is probably a quite appropriate treatment of the transition from Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI. My interests, though, were principally spiritual. Thus, I did not get from the book entirely what I'd hoped for.

It would be highly unfair to fail to acknowledge that much was discussed about spirituality, morality, and the church's struggle to countervail extremely strong secular forces in the societies of the West. Thus, considerable spirituality was brought into the discussion. Of course, I need to confess to not being or having been Catholic. My guess is that most readers of this book are Catholic. I do, however, see the Catholic Church as being more effective at moving in opposition to the rampant secularizing of society than are most (liberal or moderate) Protestant churches. Thus, I consider myself more-or-less "pro-Catholic". For many Catholic readers, this might be an excellent book. The author is obviously highly educated, knowledgeable, and deeply interested in the Catholic Church and its success.