Publisher's Synopsis
This book is a repacking of THE CATHOLIC LEFT RESPONDS TO THE PAPAL ANACHRONISTS. A more dramatic title seemed necessary. I use the term ILLUMINATI in this second edition because it shows that enlightenment thinking in the Church started way before Vatican II or Garibaldi's efforts to end the papal government of Italy. We are, instead, the intellectual children of Erasmus.The Papal Anachronists are popes and their ghost writers in the Curia that write about the unchangeability of both natural law and human nature, in defense of the infallibility of the Papal Magisterium, in opposition to liberalism and democracy, the theory of evolution as it impacts the creation story, which they believe is historic, the unchangeability of marriage and divorce between now and the time of Christ, the evil of sodomy and abortion and the Medieval structure of the Church at large. They also reject any scientific analysis of when life begins, and certainly when it reflects the views of Lambeth.They could easily be called the anti-Modernists, but it is intellectually sloppy to define someone in terms of what they are not. Even in their own writing, Modernism is a slippery concept. As it is written in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, it is very specifically described by St. Pius X, although history records no Catholic modernists that quite fit his straw man. Within a few weeks, Lamentabili Sane defines the errors of modernism a bit more broadly, but by the same Pope and Curia. I am not sure I would call anyone a Modernist according to the first encyclical. I think most modern Catholic Theologians would call themselves Modernists, if only because many of the errors St. Pius lists are now standard practice in theology and biblical scholarship. I became interested in this topic while commenting on the National Catholic Reporter comments page, where some traditionalists like to throw the term modernist out as an insult, including some who are so extreme as to reject modern biology because it conflicts with some the included Encyclicals. This seems to be the key feature of Anachronists, to put loyalty to the Church above the truth. Sadly, some of these people are bishops in charge of disciplining abusive priests. Why am I the one to write this book? As I engaged in arguments over modernity, it wrote itself as related documents emerged. I am not a professional theologian, but a professional theologian could not publish this book without retribution, although the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faithful seems to be holding off on most disciplinary action. I have included those Encyclicals that are particularly strident in defending papal authority as a means to silence further debate or thought, from Gregory XVI and his attack on liberalism to Pius IX and St. Pius X on how Academy should leave some knowledge alone as the province of the Church to Pius XII's last gasp against evolution, to Humanae Vitae by Paul VI and Evangelium Vitae by St. John Paul II, which defend the asexual morality of the celibate clergy Veritatis Splendor which is one last gasp at papal supremacy of theology. I also included contemporaneous comments on Dignitas Personae and the Five Dubia, which take the same Anachronist line.Topics include natural law, natural rights (and why they are not the same), democracy, when life begins, who can be ordained to best preach the Gospel of Life (women), living wages, capitalism, papal teaching authority, scientific inquiry, evolution, the Garden of Eden, original sin, theories of salvation and justification, euthanasia, suicide, abortion, whether God is an Ogre. By raising the topics, you can probably guess what I have to say, especially if you have read my other books (like The Conscience of a Catholic Radical). I will not break the suspense here, for the text awaits.
