UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis by Garry Wills review – a history of change in a timeless church
Kaya Oakes
Monday 9 March 2015
Just a few days before the second anniversary of his election, Pope Francis shows all the signs of being a cottage industry. A quick search on Amazon reveals 3,483 Pope Francis-related titles, ranging from the in-depth, such as Austen Ivereigh’s The Great Reformer, to a title somewhat jarring for a pope who is no friend to capitalism, Lead With Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis, doubtlessly intended to the more merciful among your CEO friends. Joining the growing pile is the latest book from historian and journalist Garry Wills, The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis.
The title is misleading. Wills barely mentions the pope in the body of the book, only treating him seriously in the introduction. “Pope Francis heartens some Catholics and frightens others,” he writes, “both for the same reason, the prospect of change.” From there, Wills focuses neither on the pope nor on the future of the church, but rather on its history, and specifically on the many ways in which the church has erred, backtracked, prevaricated, and groaningly inched its way forward into the modern age. The church, Wills argues, may act like it never changes. But in the pages of this book, he shows us that it can.
Several of Wills’s previous books, particularly Why I Am a Catholic and Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, have explored similar territory. Wills’s historical chops are on vivid display in his new title: he can zip from the church’s distortion of the stories of early martyrs to contemporary battles over the use of Latin in liturgy. For those interested in Catholicism but lacking a theology degree, Wills’s work can serve as a decent introduction. He writes for a wide audience of sceptics, doubters, and questioners. However, those who the philosopher Charles Taylor recently referred to as “dwellers” – believers who disdain anyone disagreeing with church teaching – may not appreciate all of Wills’s zingers about the church’s history.
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