Limbo
A Memoir
A. Manette Ansay
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
New York, 2001, 269 pages, ISBN 0-688-17286-5
This is an autobiography of immense value and charm. Ansay writes
of her early years in life seeking clarity to the future and
explicates for the reader the immense struggle she encountered
with a disabling physical condition that changed the whole context
of her life.
Ansay sought a musical career as a classical pianist. She began
this effort at an early age, playing short simple pieces,
graduating to more complicated compositions, and seeking year
after year the best teachers the family could find and afford. She
practiced hours after hours with the zeal and intensity that many
athletes bring to their endeavors. At times, she finished her
practice sessions with aching forearms and limp hands. She carried
on with even more intensity.
After high school, she entered a renowned conservatory to begin
the serious business of studying for the degree and career she
sought. Then, her life changed. The pain was now an ordinary part
of her life. But, more critically, she began to lose her stamina
and physical control. Her body failed her.
Essentially, the book uncovers the whole evolution of her dreams
for success and the unpredicted path her life would take.
Ansay writes with the rhetorical skill that reminds me of F. Scott
Fitzgerald. Her thought patterns are reminiscent of a philosopher
of the likes of Blaise Pascal or Immanuel Kant.
She brings light to her world of darkness and will inspire each of
us to pursue greater dreams than any of us might imagine.
Her expression of limbo, not the usual spiritual definition, is a
masterpiece of thought and imagery.
Relax with this book and be charmed and edified and energized.
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“Good
News” after Auschwitz?
Christian Faith within a Post-Holocaust World
Edited and introduced by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth
Mercer University Press, Macon, GA, June 2001, 215 pages, ISBN
0-86554-701-7
There are many
reasons for my selecting a particular book to read. At times, I am
drawn to a book to learn more about a specific subject matter. At
other times, I am anxious to read a book as a result of knowing
something about the author or writers involved in the book.
And, occasionally, I
just sit down to browse through a book unsure of what might ensue.
Regarding this book,
all of the above reasons are relevant. Scripture study is more
than just a facet of my professional work. Exegesis and analysis
of the Word of God is a daily commitment of my time and energy.
Living as we all do, in the century after the Holocaust, I also
seek to be better informed of the thoughts, statements, and
critical comments of scholars and writers about “Post-Holocaust
Christianity”.
After acquiring a
copy of the book, I immediately turned to chapter 6, “After
Auschwitz: Jews, Judaism, and Christian Worship”. My friend and
mentor, Fr. Robert W. Bullock, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in
Sharon, wrote this chapter.
The writing was so
familiar and inspiring to me. In this chapter, Fr. Bullock
presents a clear challenge and recommendation to all of us engaged
in pastoral work. He writes: “ …Millions go to churches every
Sunday. They enter a sacred environment of word, song, prayer, and
art. How Jews and Judaism are depicted in this environment, in the
lectionary, hymns, prayers, and art is highly problematic. In the
liturgical environment, supercessionism is endemic. It is found in
liturgy’s word and structures…” (p. 73)
And I then turned to
the beginning to read the whole book and to discover unanticipated
riches from other holocaust studies scholars.
Origin and
Composition
How did this book
come to be? In 1998, at the Annual Scholars Conference on the
Holocaust and the Churches, a small group met informally and
talked about a new project. The concern was the challenge that
Christians have in spreading the ‘Good News’ after the
Holocaust. The group met again in 1999 and shared ideas and
questions and draft papers.
Carol Rittner
(Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Richard
Stockton College of New Jersey) and John Roth (the Russell K.
Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College,
Claremont, CA.) then undertook to coordinate the project and have
published this book – a three-part collection of essays by
thirteen Christian scholars.
Part one contains
essays about ‘precautions’. This is the framework for later
reflection. The reader is led carefully to understand the problems
inherent in proclaiming the Good News after the Holocaust.
Part two contains
essays about ‘practices’. In this section, the writing shifts
to the actions needed to allow for the proclamation of the Gospel
to be credible.
Part three contains
essays that center on ‘proclamation’. As an example,
reflecting on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his writings on
discipleship, authors continue to stress the responsibility we all
have to understand the scriptures (Hebrew and Christian) more
deeply and radically. And, how does the Word motivate each of us?
Exhortation
Every author made a
significant contribution. And the diversity of the writing and
critical thought was powerful in building to coherency throughout
the structure. As an example, I was edified by the way in which
Henry F. Knight (university chaplain and assistant professor of
Religion at the University of Tulsa) presented the concept of
‘Hospitality’.
He began by saying
that “ …Whatever else we may say about the period of history
we call the Shoah, it was a time of radical inhospitality. Jews,
the quintessential “other” in Christendom, were radically
unwelcome not simply to share place but also life and breath in
the Nazi universe of the Third Reich. Simple hospitality toward
Jews took on increased significance, for it involved
life-and-death affairs for those who were its recipients as well
as those who were its hosts…” (p. 99)
Knight expands on
the idea of hospitality in the unfolding of the message Jesus
proclaimed throughout the accounts of the four gospels. Then, he
says “ …In other words, Christianity may rightfully speak of
its good news only when it also speaks of its accountability to
live hospitably with others. After Auschwitz, however, we must be
more forthright: as post-Shoah Christians, we must learn to speak
of our good news while recognizing that Jews may speak of theirs
in similar fashion…” (p. 109)
Summary
This is a book that
will remain close by on my shelf, to be a critical resource as I
continue to search for a deeper meaning of the scriptures in my
personal and pastoral experience of life.
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Left
back: A Century of Failed School Reforms
Diane Ravitch
Simon &Schuster, New York, NY, 2000
555 Pages
Each of us has an opinion about
education and the purpose and objective of schools, whether we
look at public, private, or home schooling. We are all products of
some particular educational system and philosophy and, as such, we
bring to the opinion arena our own anecdotal evidence and singular
feelings. The observations we make about the state of education in
our contemporary experience reflect our own experience and our
expectations.
But, how has the present system
of education in America evolved into the complex array of public
schools, private schools, home schooling, and alternative
educational enterprises? What is new and what is not new? How do
we define tradition and basic or classical instruction?
Who were and are the champions of
the evolving disciplines that have been introduced into the
history of education in America? Can we understand the late 20th
century push for ‘reform’ without an appreciation for the
‘reform’ practitioners of the late 19th century?
When did the struggle begin
between those who advocated an academic curriculum and those who
advocated a ‘child centered’ curriculum? When did the
curriculum reflect ‘English Language Arts’ in lieu of
‘English’?
Diane Ravitch has written a very
informative and introspective book that provides an historical
account of public educational theory and movements and people from
the 19th century to the present. This book is
comprehensive and detailed. And, the book provides an accounting
of trends, standards, philosophies, social reforms, and testing
arguments.
Ravitch makes this point in her
introduction: “ … We cannot understand where we are and where
we are heading without knowing where we have been. We live now
with decisions and policies that were made long ago. Before we
attempt to reform present practices, we must try to learn why
those decisions were made and to understand the consequences of
past policies. …” (p. 14)
Finally, Ravitch concludes her
treatise with a simple statement of her own. “ …To be
effective, schools must concentrate on their fundamental mission
of teaching and learning. And they must do it for all
children…” (p. 467)
This is a very valuable book to
be read, digested, and put alongside your favorite dictionary.
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Tip O’Neill and the
Democratic Century
- John Aloysius
Farrell
Little, Brown and Company, Boston 2001
776 pages
Here is a biography
of a beloved son of Massachusetts politics and the exemplar of the
belief that government is necessary for the well being of society.
Farrell is an editor for the Boston Globe and has produced a
highly detailed biography of Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill,
congressman and Speaker of the House.
Yet,
it is even more than a biography. Farrell has provided a
rhetorical sketch of Tip O’Neill, and his family and philosophy
and the events in American politics from post WWI to 1994. With
O’Neill as the focus, Farrell consciously examines the politics
of America with the sense that Democrats were ‘the good guys’.
The reader needs to be aware of the objective in the book, not
overtly stated but rather clear, that O’Neill was a hero
struggling against the tide of conservatism and the Republican
power in Washington.
Farrell
is a journalist and his writing is of that genre. The telling of
history requires more than journalistic reporting. Insight and
analysis are not the skills that Farrell brings to the writing.
But,
this is a book to be read carefully. For those like myself who
lived through the history, the books reminds us of those times and
the characters involved. For the younger set, the book will edify
and inform.
At
times, the detail gets foggy and confusing. At other times, the
anecdotes about O’Neill are so terrific as to be preserved by
the reader.
Read
and enjoy this slice of American politics emboldened in the person
of ‘Tip’ O’Neill.
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