Tiber Tide

January 12, 2007 By 1 Comment

David Hartline’s book The Tide is Turning Towards Catholicism is a good tonic for the doom and gloom we often hear about the church. The basic theme echoes Pope Benedict’s famous words, “The church is alive, the Church is young.” Hartline chronicles the surge in new vocations, the youthful and enthusiastic faith of the JP2 generation and the contribution that (ahem) converts are making to the Church today.
David admits that the book was a quick writing job. Because of this it is fast paced and quick to read. However, it is more of a snapshot than a comprehensive catalogue. I wish Hartline had taken a bit more time to cast his net even more widely and give us even more of the good news. There’s not very much on the new moves in Catholic education and very little on the whole range of new ecclesial movements. The other little grumble is that very often the good news is strengthened if the writer admits some of the down sides of his subject. Hartline’s upbeat optimism might have been even stronger if there were some shadows that helped emphasize the excellent stuff that’s out there.
But those quibbles aside, its a heartily good and upbeat read. I recommend it. You can get it here. Auntie Joanna’s has also read it and weighs in from England.

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About Fr. Dwight Longenecker
  • Ramon

    I just finished reading it as well (and as a disclaimer, Dave did quote me in it but I am just a occasional poster on his blog. Listening to the contemporary world news on any particular evening, one would begin to think that our world is ridden with corruption, hate and fear and fated to an inexorable slide to oblivion. In that context, the Catholic Church has also been a very large target for those would agree with the above statement, with it’s promise of Heaven, it’s emphasis on the nobility of sacrifice and it’s counter-cultural agenda and it’s very personal promise that Jesus died for my sins. In the decades following the Second World War, indeed the news for the Catholic Church has been challenging…increasingly empty seminaries, the rise of divisive theologies within the Church, seemingly lost ground in the culture wars. But then, in 1979, a little known Polish Priest named Karol Woltyla was chosen as Pope and combined with the orthodox faithful (that never left, their voices and faces were just drowned out by the din), the Tide began to turn. One of the things that first jumped out at me as I started reading Dave’s book was that it was manifestly obvious that the book with written with such joy and hope. It just emerges from the pages. I can’t help but have the feeling that we live in such an exciting time for the Catholic Church! Even the secular press is both surprised and confused by what they have to report. World Youth Day’s with absolutely mind-numbing attendance by young people (who weren’t supposed to be interested in such a tee-totaling, guilt ridden religion), explosive growth in the Third world and a return to orthodoxy everywhere else. After a 1000 years, the rift between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church openly being healed and the possibility of reunion tantalizingly within our grasp. This is not just reason for me to hope, this is about our children and our children’s children. This is a story about why we should “be not afraid” to bring new life into the world and as individuals, to shed our anxieties about how people will perceive us and “live our faith out loud” ;-) Father Longnecker makes a good point around the fact that perhaps more negative examples and shadows could be used to empahasized the light( and joy) of his message but in my opinion, one just needs to turn on the televsion or go to the movies, turn on NPR,or sadly watch children interact in public schools to see those negative examples and shadows. So in this particular case, I think it’s more a question of aesthetic “balance” of how best to make the intellectual point in a limited space. I am just glad we have gotten the dialog of the ground and that folks start hearing that there is a small fire burning and it has big plans. As we saw in the early Church as well as we see now in Africa and China, we always perform best when the chips are down (and listening to the secular media) the chips are not just down but we are out of the game. But we still have some game left in this 2000 year old Body (of Chris) ;-) Ramon