Reader’s Diary

Father Benedict J. Groeschel

This is a wise work what the Catholic Church calls “private revelations”: the various forms of revelation - including apparitions - experienced by people since Apostolic times. Father Groeschel explains how the Church regards them and how we are to discern and understand them. They, he writes, never contradict the teachings of the Church and can never contain new, post-Apostolic, beliefs. Many such revelations are not authentic and Father Groeschel makes the point that even those which are may be misinterpreted by the visionary or by others. He also suggests that truly private (individual, less than Lourdes-scale) revelation may be more common that we realize.

Pope John Paul II

This is a deceptively short book. Though physically small, it’s content is both deep and wide. Pope John Paul II covers a variety of topics ranging from “other religions” to “how the pope prays”. The central message is the central message of his papacy: “be not afraid.” Though written for a layman, the pope’s erudition obvious on every page and is almost as impressive as his faith.

This book is inspiring, thought-provoking, and moving.

James Hilton

This story of a band of modern (circa 1930, that is) travelers who stumble on the lost Himalayan land of Shangri-La was the inspiration for the classic Frank Capra movie of 1937. It’s more philosophical than the movie, but no less interesting.

Randall Sullivan

“Rolling Stone editor goes to Medjugorje” doesn’t sound like the synopsis of a deeply personal and spiritual memoir of a man’s confrontation with faith, but that’s just what this book is. Sullivan writes about apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a topic that makes many non-Catholics and not a few Catholics cringe. He’s not gullible, not even a believer at the start, but comes to believe that something real has happened at Medjugorje and other sites around the world.

The book tells the confusing tale of the Medjugorje apparitions clearly. It also describes the lengths to which the Catholic Church goes to disprove apparent miracles so that there can be little doubt that the ones that are not rejected cannot be explained by science.

This is a gripping, thoughtful book that’s hard to summarize. It’s a travelogue, it’s investigative reporting, and it’s a memoir. It’s a must-read for anyone with the slightest interest in the most public of what the Catholic Church calls “private revelations“.

Note: The Church never regards an apparition as a necessary part of the faith, and no visionary who claims post-Apostolic “public revelation” is ever given any credence. (See paragraphs 66 and 67 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)

Wade Rowland

The Church never condemned Copernicus, yet it condemned Galileo for his support for Copernican cosmology. Wade Rowland believes that it was Galileo’s “mistake” that put him on a collision course with the Vatican, the mistake of suggesting that only science can reveal the truth about the world. This, Rowland writes, was the real reason that the Church tried Galileo, despite the fact that some of its highest officials admired him and were fascinated by his work.

Rowland’s book is a densely packed but lightly written look at Galileo’s life and trial, the Counter-Reformation, the passing of the Age of Faith and the dawning of the Age of Reason. In addition to conventional narrative, he uses a Socratic dialog between himself and two friends, who, while traveling in modern Italy, discuss the nature of truth though the lens of Galileo’s trial.

It’s impossible, in a few paragraphs, to describe the breadth and depth of this book. It mixes history, biography, travel, and philosophy without being either pompous or ponderous. It’s a short book that ends too quickly and a delight to read.

Stephen Baxter

What if H. G. Wells’ time traveler made another trip? That’s the question Stephen Baxter answers in “The Time Ships”, a sequel to Wells’ “The Time Machine“. In this entertaining, if somewhat long, book, Baxter stays true to the tone of the original while introducing modern SF concepts like multiple universes and nanotechnology.

The narrator discovers that not all Morlocks, or at least not all Morlocks in all time lines, are evil as the narrator and a Morlock companion journey through alternate histories from the dawn of the universe to the end of “life” on Earth. On the way they encounter a domed 1938 London suffering air attacks in a World War One that never ended and a frozen world where intelligent machines are mankind’s only heirs.

Baxter has skillfully integrated his story into Wells’, keeping the same narrative voice but not obviously trying to write like Wells.