One Book Done, Another Begun

A few nights ago, I finished Father Elijah: An Apocalypse. This novel is ideal entertainment for orthodox Catholics. The title character is sent on a mission by the Vatican to try to save the soul of a man it believes might be the Antichrist. Unlike the American Evangelicals who support Israel in the belief that doing so will usher in the Apocalypse, the Catholic characters in the book, including the Pope, do their utmost to postpone the Second Coming of Christ so that more souls might be saved.

The book is full of theological and eschatological insights. It is also helpful to understanding the modernist mess the Catholic Church finds herself in these days. ["The Church is bleeding from many wounds" is an oft-repeated phrase in the book.] At one point it does so with great satire, in describing a rehabilitation center for troubled, i.e. orthodox, priests, where they are forced dance around a fire semi-naked wearing deer antlers on their heads. At the same time, the books explains why charity, and realpolitik, will not allow the Pope to simply excommunicate all the modernists and dissenters stowing away on the Barque of Peter.

My only fault with the book is that the characters are a bit thinly drawn and their dialogue a bit strained. Still, there are passages of great eloquence, and the book is far more entertaining and edifying than many books of perhaps higher literary value.

Although a novel, the book does such a good job explaining the Church's core doctrines and teachings that I have added it to my sidebar's list of Recommended Books on Catholicism.

Above all, the book is an illustration that Catholicism, far from being a crutch, is the greatest adventure of all.

Last night, to fill the void left by the above novel, I began The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci, S.J. ( 利瑪竇 - Lì Mǎdòu), was a Jesuit missionary, scientist, and emissary to Ming China. [His view that the Confucian ancestor worship was nothing more than the demonstration of remembrance and respect to ancestors is why Catholics in Korea and China, including me, are allowed to participate in ancestral ceremonies, while Protestants are not.]

I just finished the first chapter, which contains a fascinating exploration of the Ars memorativa and mnemonic devices from Classical, Mediæval, and Renaissance Europe, which Fr. Ricci brought to China. The book promises to be a window into the thought of both Counter-Reformation Europe and Ming Dynasty China, as well as the account of a truly extraordinary life.