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| Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church | 
 enlarge | Author: Bishop Geoffrey Robinson
Creator: Donald Cozzens
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (15 reviews)
Sales Rank: 36800
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0814618650
Dewey Decimal Number: 261.83272088282
EAN: 9780814618653
ASIN: 0814618650
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Ambiguity and Paradox July 31, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Goeffrey Robinson does a masterful job on ambiguities in the Catholic Church and his rehetorical questions sharpen that description. At first, as was another reviewer,I was put off by the questions. I discovered that the questions express the ambiguity.
I believe that he misses the depth of paradox. Diversity consitutes unity. He only mentions subsidiarity in a meditation but fails to join solidarity and subsidiarity in his discussion on tensions.
I also believe he makes many true statements. Sexual abuse is an abuse of power. The system in which authority is exercised limits the proper exercise of the full power of the Church.
Reading his book reminded me of my study of Modernism. It was a time when Church structures had become inadequate to meet the issues of the day.
I believe that the book will bear fruit if readers can help the Church die to,lose,give up,change those structures of its power system in order that it may live the unity in love for which Christ prayed.
One of my professors used to say that grasping paradox is deeper than discovering contradiction. Ambiguity affirms the reality of opposing positions.
Rev. Cris Janson
cjanson@swbell.net
Inspirational, a must read July 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Bishop Robinson's book is full of history and ideas to mordanize the Catholic Church. It will help explain why the church got to where it is today and then how we can all (laity, clerical, religious) change the church.
This book will change you and the way you look at religion and the concept of Church.
confronting power etc July 3, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a profoundly spiritual and honest publication. Not always easy to read but always rewarding, sometimes uniquely so. i defy anyone to read this book without being surprised by its frankness and its sincerity
An outstanding call for true Catholic Church reform, a tour de force July 1, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a really excellent book, coming directly to grips not only with the Roman Catholic Church's clerical abuse problems, but with history's iron grip on both governance and doctrine and the Church's inability to get beyond that grip -- due to structure, resistance to paradigm shifts, and a failure of will. Clerical sexual abuse is shown as a prime example of the Church's dysfunctional structure, marginalizing of the laity, and centralization of power far from where the rubber meets the road.
An earlier reviewer was put off somewhat by the author's use of rhetorical questions. I do see her point, but I think Bp. Robinson was extremely clever to make his points that way, rather than by flat declarative confrontations with the Roman Curia. Sadly, instead of maturely responding in kind, the hierarchy once again shot itself in the foot with its overblown reaction both to problem statements and to suggested paths out of the morass. (The impact on me of Roger Cardinal Mahony's appalling letter to the author was that I immediately bought and devoured the book.)
Highly recommended. Benedict XVI and his team should be encouraging such thinkers and questioners, and engaging them in reasoned twenty-first century dialogue, rather than harking back to the fifth century (Augustine) and the sixteenth (Council of Trent) and hiding behind "creeping infallibility." I hope Catholics, both laity and clergy, will have the guts to read this book and use it as a step on the ladder of reform. Ecclesia semper reformanda est (the Church must always be reforming. Always.)
A Balance of Power June 29, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Bishop Robinson shows how the power in the Catholic Church has been unduly concentrated over the centuries due to the absence of checks and balances. He presents a modern view of the roles that Scripture, the world, and discernment play in developing a knowledge and understanding of God. He suggests changes to the governing structure of the Catholic Hierarchy that do not violate Scripture and would allow more rapid response to needs in various parts of the world. This book should be read and discussed by all adult Catholics.
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