Letters to a Young Catholic

Vacation is over and luckily I've got a few days to recover from my vicious sunburn before returning to the grind. We had lots of fun in the mountains of Colorado, but (not having internet access) I've been anxious to post a few thoughts on Letters to a Young Catholic, having read it just before I left. For those of us who are not of a Roman Catholic persuasion, there is no need to be suspicious of the title. While George Weigel has written this book specifically as an exposition of the Roman Catholic world, he ends up offering a view of Christianity that speaks to Roman Catholic and catholic Protestant audiences alike. Even when he discusses certain aspects of Roman Catholicism that we as Protestants would take issues with, he does so in a way that forces the reader to reevaluate his or her thinking on the subject. For example, his discussion on dedication to Mary takes an issue which I have always tossed out as silly and superstitious (and I still believe that it is at root) and forced me to see how, at least for some, it is truly a means of pointing them to Christ.

Weigel's book is a primer on some of the foundational ideas of the Catholic faith as discovered through an exploration of significant Catholic landmarks throughout the world. In each chapter, Weigel visits a different site and uses that specific location to illustrate a specific principle. In the second chapter we are taken to the Scavi of St. Peters Basilica in Rome where we see the grittiness of the Catholic faith in which "the truth of faith is something that seizes us" and works itself out in space and time, in the arena of history. In the fifth chapter, Weigel takes us to the Birmingham Oratory founded by the famous churchman John Henry Newman. It is here that we are shown the importance of combating "liberal" religion, which shapes religion according to the fancy of man, with "revealed" religion which shapes man into the image of God. In my favorite chapter, we go to the Olde Cheshire Cheese in London, the favorite hangout of G.K. Chesterton. It is here that the stone, beer, and bread of the tavern show us the Catholic "sacramental imagination" which insists "that God saves and sanctifies the world through the materials of the world."

In Letters to a Young Catholic, George Weigel shows how Catholic (or catholic) Christianity should stand out amongst the secular society of our day. The unreachable goals of humanism are shown to be redeemed in light of the eternal love of God who shows us that He is transforming humanity into His image. In a culture where love and sex are cheapened beyond recognition of their true purpose, Weigel shows how John Paul II's theology of the body restores true meaning to human relationships. Again, there is no need for an evangelical audience to be frightened off by Weigel. The Christian way of viewing the world, which he so beautifully lays out, is the same articulation of "mere" Christianity given to us by C.S. Lewis. Weigel's discussion of Newman and the need to combat "liberal" religion is the same fight taken up by Francis Schaeffer in the twentieth century. Letters to a Young Catholic is a wonderful book for anyone who wants a fuller vision of the uniqueness, beauty, and depth of Christian faith and its many expressions throughout the world.