Kam
So this was a less serious book than I thought it would be, though the Stephen Colbert tag on the cover ought to have given that away. The assumption is entirely on me.
Despite that, though, I think this was a pretty interesting exploration of the process of canonization. Despite having been educated in Catholic schools all my life, I don’t recall canonization being taught in our catechism classes (yes, we DO have them here), so it was interesting getting to read an, admittedly, abridged version of that in this book.
One element I appreciated about this book was how the author didn’t hesitate to call out the Church’s hypocrisies. There’s a lot of politics involved in the Church’s processes as a whole, but studying the process of canonization specifically was a great way of illustrating how often the Church contradicts itself in its own doctrines. To be clear: there was nothing mean-spirited about how this book pointed out those hypocrisies, though I suspect they didn’t feel mean-spirited to me because my relationship with Catholicism has since been tempered by what I know of the institution’s history and practice. More devout Catholics, however, might not always appreciate the tone this book takes when tackling certain issues, like the Church’s fraught relationship with feminism and queer politics.
One thing I do wish this book had done better, though, was dig just a bit deeper into the process of canonization itself. I felt there were plenty of places where the book could have dug in just a bit deeper, especially in relation to saintly relics and the Church’s history with such items. The fact that the book only mentions them, but does not tackle them directly, is a bit disappointing, given how important relics are to the history of the Church, and how they reveal an entire raft of very weird history that could have been tackled in this book.
Overall, this was a nice, humorous overview of a process that’s unfamiliar even to some Catholics, while also pointing out the Church’s hypocrisies without being overly mean-spirited about it. While I personally wish that it had gone a bit more in-depth on certain aspects of canonization (talking about relics was a missed opportunity), this was still a pretty good, generalized look at the process.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.
So this was a less serious book than I thought it would be, though the Stephen Colbert tag on the cover ought to have given that away. The assumption is entirely on me.
Despite that, though, I think this was a pretty interesting exploration of the process of canonization. Despite having been educated in Catholic schools all my life, I don’t recall canonization being taught in our catechism classes (yes, we DO have them here), so it was interesting getting to read an, admittedly, abridged version of that in this book.
One element I appreciated about this book was how the author didn’t hesitate to call out the Church’s hypocrisies. There’s a lot of politics involved in the Church’s processes as a whole, but studying the process of canonization specifically was a great way of illustrating how often the Church contradicts itself in its own doctrines. To be clear: there was nothing mean-spirited about how this book pointed out those hypocrisies, though I suspect they didn’t feel mean-spirited to me because my relationship with Catholicism has since been tempered by what I know of the institution’s history and practice. More devout Catholics, however, might not always appreciate the tone this book takes when tackling certain issues, like the Church’s fraught relationship with feminism and queer politics.
One thing I do wish this book had done better, though, was dig just a bit deeper into the process of canonization itself. I felt there were plenty of places where the book could have dug in just a bit deeper, especially in relation to saintly relics and the Church’s history with such items. The fact that the book only mentions them, but does not tackle them directly, is a bit disappointing, given how important relics are to the history of the Church, and how they reveal an entire raft of very weird history that could have been tackled in this book.
Overall, this was a nice, humorous overview of a process that’s unfamiliar even to some Catholics, while also pointing out the Church’s hypocrisies without being overly mean-spirited about it. While I personally wish that it had gone a bit more in-depth on certain aspects of canonization (talking about relics was a missed opportunity), this was still a pretty good, generalized look at the process.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.