Kresta in the Afternoon Podcast and Download

Just so you have it handy for your listening pleasure--and to download if you wish--here's the podcast of my interview with Al Kresta on January 15, the 485th anniversary of Henry VIII proclaiming himself "Henricus Octavus, Dei gratia Angliæ et Franciæ Rex, Fidei Defensor et Dominus Hiberniæ, et in Terra Supremum Caput Anglicanæ Ecclesiæ": Henry the VIIIth, by the Grace of God King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland, and on earth Supreme Head of the Church of England"!

One chronological point about this date in the context of the timeline of the English Reformation to clarify: Oaths of Succession had already been submitted for secular and religious men to take: Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher had been in the Tower of London since the middle of April, 1534 because they refused to swear that oath. It did not proclaim Henry the Supreme Head of the Church of England but it did deny the spiritual or ecclesiastical authority of the Pope in England, especially when it interfered with the Succession and Henry's marital affairs.

When Henry VIII made this declaration of his new title, the Parliamentary Act of Supremacy and the Treasons Act were already in place--since November of 1534. At their trials, the crucial act for the government to prove was that both More and Fisher had denied that Henry VIII was the Supreme Head of the Church of England; thus they had committed Treason and were condemned traitors to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. At both of their trials, Sir Richard Rich was the star witness to their acts of treason: Sir Thomas More vehemently protested that he would never have confided to such a person his thoughts on a matter he had told no one else, not even his family!

I first met Al Kresta in 2011 at the Catholic Writers Guild/Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show. He has been kind enough to recommend my book to "anyone interested in this topic" ever since! He says so at the very end of this interview!

On "Kresta in the Afternoon" TODAY

Before I go to my Holy Hour of Adoration today, I am going to record a segment for Kresta in The Afternoon, which will be aired later today. I'm not sure when it will be aired during his two hour show, but we are going to discuss Henry VIII being named Supreme Head and Governor of the Church in England and what it meant for Catholics in England.

Kresta in the Afternoon is on EWTN Radio and Ave Maria Radio from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central Time/4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern, etc.

What did it mean for Catholics in England at the time? Did they expect any real changes in doctrine, worship, and discipline? Except for a few, like the Carthusians, and the Observant Franciscans, and Sir Thomas More, and Bishop John Fisher, most probably thought that Henry VIII becoming the Supreme Head and Governor of the Church of England meant that everything as far as doctrine--except for the Pope--and worship--except for the Pope (as he was cited in the prayers at Mass and in the Divine Office)--and morals would remain the same.

By December 24, 1545, Henry VIII may have not been sure what he wanted to achieve as the Supreme Head and Governor of the Church of England. He was certainly disappointed that there was so much division in the Church, but there had been at least two parties, the reforming Lutherans and the conservative Catholics, from the beginning, contending for influence over the king. From 1536 to 1545, religious practice in England changed from being more Lutheran to being more Catholic: the Ten Articles and the Bishops Book; then the Six Articles and the King's Book; the suppression of the monasteries and the friaries; the fall of Cromwell; the Chantries Act; and at the end of Henry VIII's reign, the Lutheran/Calvinist party prepared to seize power when he died.

According to G.W. Bernard, in The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church:

The king sought a middle way between Rome and Zurich, between Catholicism and its associated superstitions on one hand and the subversive radicalism of the reformers on the other. With a ruthlessness that verged on tyranny, Henry VIII determined the pace of change in the most important twenty years of England’s religious development.

I think it's hard to know what Henry VIII intended to achieve at the beginning of his control over the Church of England beyond consolidating his dynasty's succession.

On "Kresta in the Afternoon"

In the celebration of Holy Week and the Triduum last week, and in the midst of preparing for an Easter week vacation in the Ozarks, I forgot to tell you about my interview on Kresta in the Afternoon! Al and I talked about the issues and characters involved in "The King's Great Matter", Henry VIII's desire to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the mother of his children and his anointed and crowned Queen because they had not had a son who survived infancy.

(This was the reason that I had done some research on Eleanor of Aquitaine's annulment last month!)

It is always so fun to talk with Mr. Kresta: he is so knowledgeable himself about Church History and yet wants to hear what his guest has to say!

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen! Alleluia!

"Bad Religion" and "Dangers to the Faith": Book Review, Part Two

I read Ross Douthat's Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics last month and then followed it up by reading Al Kresta's Dangers to the Faith: Recognizing Catholicism's 21st-Century Opponents. The two books are related, as both authors examine the Church's competition for what to believe, how to pray, how to live, and how to think. Douthat tells a story, tracing a history of change and secularization and focusing on a handful of heresies--teachings about Christianity that over-emphasize one doctrine or another and thus distort Christian orthodoxy (using a Mere Christianity view). Kresta writes about 14 opponents of the Catholic Church divided into four groups: Abusers of Spirituality and Revelation; Abusers of Science and Reason; Abusers of the Past and Future, and Abusers of Wealth and Power. Douthat's book is a narrative to be absorbed and analyzed, with a conclusion that emphasizes personal action; Kresta's is is a compendium of information to be consulted and used as a reference for refutation and argument. As I reviewed Bad Religion yesterday, today I focus on Dangers to the Faith.

To begin, I think I should note that Al Kresta has interviewed me a few times on his radio program; he and Nick Thomm even reached out to me to set up an interview on site at the Catholic Writers Guild Conference. Nevertheless, neither he nor OSV sent me a review copy or asked for my opinion. I bought my copies of both Bad Religion and Dangers to the Faith at Eighth Day Books. I have also listened to Al Kresta's program often and was more familiar with his way of reasoning and presenting his arguments than I was with Douthat's--in fact, although I've heard of Douthat and seen and heard interviews on broadcast media, this was the first work of his I'd read. Reading Dangers to the Faith is like listening to Al Kresta: his story-telling method; his way of presenting his side of the argument and deflating the other side's argument--they come through clearly here. His voice is unmistakable on the printed page.

As Kresta presents the 14 dangers to the Faith, he quotes extensively from the sources of the dangers' founders and exponents. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific danger, outlining its tenets and contradiction of Catholic Truth, and then describing arguments against it. The book does not have an index, but it does have pages of notes so you have the sources and resources for further reading. I saw Mr. Kresta on Raymond Arroyo's The World Over program and he commented that these 14 dangers are all abusers of goods. They take something good, like understanding nature through the scientific method, and twist it so that the scientific method becomes the only way to understand life. In that way, these abusers of goods resemble Christian heretics, who take some aspect of the truth, for example, Christian teaching on Who Jesus is and over emphasize it like the Arians or the Monophysites. In a way, both Kresta's "abusers of goods" and Douthat's "heretics" are narrow minded and limited: they cannot see the complexity of reality and so try to manage it by bringing reality down to their level. It may be difficult to understand the relationship between Faith and Reason or how Jesus could be True God and True Man, but it's better to try and fail than to adopt an unrealistic minimalization of the truth so you can handle either truth.

In addition to commenting on the voice so evident in these chapters, I'd like to mention the tone: Kresta is always charitable, sometimes a little exasperated, but never demeaning or disparaging. He speaks of these "enemies" with love, because he wishes they knew the truth. Using the example of Oprah Winfrey's encounter with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Kresta demonstrates how much she knew something great and good was there--she just didn't recognize Who was there. 

Kresta achieves his goals in helping his readers "know and love the faith" and "love the mission field" (from the Introduction). I did find the subheads, used not just for sections but for paragraphs, rather distracting, and I do wish the book had an index. Dangers to the Faith is an excellent resource and reference. Kresta ends his book just as Douthat did: with a call to sanctity for all Catholics as the best apologetic argument we can make.

"Bad Religion" and "Dangers to the Faith": Book Reviews, Part One

I read Ross Douthat's Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics last month and then followed it up by reading Al Kresta's Dangers to the Faith: Recognizing Catholicism's 21st-Century Opponents. The two books are related, as both authors examine the Church's competition for what to believe, how to pray, how to live, and how to think. Douthat tells a story, tracing a history of change and secularization and focusing on a handful of heresies--teachings about Christianity that over-emphasize one doctrine or another and thus distort Christian orthodoxy (using a Mere Christianity view). Kresta writes about 14 opponents of the Catholic Church divided into four groups: Abusers of Spirituality and Revelation; Abusers of Science and Reason; Abusers of the Past and Future, and Abusers of Wealth and Power. Douthat's book is a narrative to be absorbed and analyzed, with a conclusion that emphasizes personal action; Kresta's is is a compendium of information to be consulted and used as a reference for refutation and argument.

In Bad Religion, Douthat starts (in Part I) from a time in the mid-twentieth century when the Catholic Church (in the person of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen), the mainline Protestant churches (Reinhold Niebuhr); the evangelical/fundamentalist churches (Billy Graham), and the African-American Christian churches (Martin Luther King, Jr) each presented an effective, persuasive, and cohesive vision of Christian orthodoxy. Within the limits of their Reformation driven divisions, they were agreed upon the influence Christianity should have on culture. Douthat highlights the Civil Rights movement as the case study of that unity and effectiveness.

But then it all fell apart: secularization and accommodation to the cultural and moral shifts of the 1960's and 1970's weakened the prophetic voice of Christianity in America. Douthat particularly examines the decline of the Catholic Church in the wake of the Second Vatican Council--the decline in vocations, Mass attendance, orthodoxy and orthopraxy--although he also analyzes the revival of Catholicism during the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II, and the many Catholic organizations, colleges, and publications that drove that revival. I have often heard comments that when the history of the Catholic Church in twentieth century America is written someday, Mother Angelica's EWTN will be commended for its influence--but Douthat does not mention it in this book. He analyzes the alliance between Catholics and Evangelicals at the same time noting the separation between Catholics and mainline Protestant churches, both centering around social issues like abortion, the definition of marriage, and the place of religion in public discourse.

In Part II he examines four heresies (and here he and Kresta overlap in both the heresies/dangers they highlight): the campaign to displace the New Testament with the Gnostic gospels and an alternative view of orthodox doctrine about the Incarnation of Jesus; the popularity of the Prosperity gospel; New Age spirituality; and over identification of Christianity with the American nation and republic (Christian Nationalism). All four present versions of Christian teaching that are more attractive than Christian orthodoxy because they reduce the moral and spiritual demands of religion for anyone who wants to follow Jesus. For example: instead of "pick up your cross", bear sufferings in unity with Christ, and observe poverty of spirit and material possessions, the Prosperity gospel says enjoy life now, see your wealth and comfort as signs of God's favor, expect great things now. Just like the Gnostic gospels, the Prosperity gospel cannot face the real example of suffering and redemption held out by the true Good News. But they seem easier and less demanding, just like the other two heresies--until you realize that they do nothing to help you face the real sorrows and joys of human life (that's my interpretation, not necessarily Douthat's). If, like Elizabeth Gilbert, you base your current and eternal happiness on the realization of "the God Within", you have a pretty weak foundation: fallible, mortal, self-serving and ultimately ineffective. (Kresta is particularly effective with his analysis of New Age spirituality.)

Finally, I appreciate Douthat's concluding remarks about what Christians need to do if they want to see Orthodoxy thrive again, because he focuses on what you and I can do. He cites G.K. Chesterton's comment from The Everlasting Man that the Church should have died at least five times before in its two thousand (2,000) year history--but didn't. His suggestions focus on knowing what Christians believe, knowing the reasons for our hope so we can express it, and living according to those beliefs and reasons are better than any master plan--well, I guess they are the Master's plan! He also encourages Christians to avoid syncretism as they work together on certain issues, to be true to their own community's beliefs, and he quotes Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, before he became pope: "The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb." (from The Ratzinger Report). Therefore, Douthat says, be saints and artists!

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Nation of Heretics

Part I Christianity in Crisis
1 The Lost World
2 The Locust Years
3 Accommodation
4 Resistance

Part II The Age of Heresy
5 Lost in the Gospels
6 Pray and Grow Rich
7 The God Within
8 The City on the Hill
Conclusion: The Recovery of Christianity

Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

More on Dangers to the Faith: Recognizing Catholicism's 21st-Century Opponents tomorrow.

The Feast of the Martyrs of England and Wales on the Radio

I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show Friday morning, May 3 to highlight once again the great Feast of the Martyrs of England and Wales, which is on Saturday, May 4 in the Dioceses of England and Wales. Brian Patrick and I will discuss the martyrs and their feast, which is set on the day the protomartyrs of the English Reformation suffered and died at Tyburn in 1535, at 7:45 a.m. Eastern--6:45 a.m. Central (where I am!)

Then on Monday afternoon, May 6, I'll be on Kresta in the Afternoon to discuss the same feast (Al Kresta is on retreat this week so we'll talk then from 4:35 to 4:55 p.m. Eastern--3:35 to 3:55 p.m. Central.

With both of these interviews, I do want to highlight the upcoming Catholic Martyrs of England Pilgrimage, pointing out that our tour will visit several sites and shrines associated with these martyrs:

York: St. Margaret Clitherow and St. Henry Walpole, and several other priests, including two of the Carthusians of the Charterhouse in London, were martyred there; York was a major center of recusancy;

Oxford: Many of the priests who suffered martyrdom during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were former students at the University of Oxford, including St. Edmund Campion, St. Cuthbert Mayne, St. Ralph Sherwin; and four martyrs were executed in Oxford: Blessed George Nichols and Blessed Richard Yaxley, priests; Blessed Thomas Belson and Blessed Humphrey Pritchard, laymen;

Canterbury: Not only the site of St. Thomas a Becket's martyrdom but also of St. John Stone, Augustinian Canon (executed after Christmas in 1539) and the Oaten Hill martyrs, executed after the failure of the Spanish Armada: Blessed Edward Campion, Blessed Christopher Buxton, Blessed Robert Wilcox, and Blessed Robert Widmerpool--and there's the St. Thomas More connection as his head is buried in St. Dunstan's Anglican church;

London: St. Thomas More, St. John Fisher and many, many others (St. Robert Southwell, St. Oliver Plunkett, St. Anne Line, et al) suffered both at the Tower of London and at Tyburn Tree, and at various other sites in London, including Smithfield, where Blessed John Forrest was burned alive;

Arundel: not the site of martyrdom, but an important shrine at the Cathedral of St. Philip Howard and the location of splendid Arundel Castle, with its exhibit of "relics" of Mary, Queen of Scots and a fascinating chapel.

This pilgrimage, since I developed the itinerary at Corporate Travel Services' request, is unique in its focus on the English martyrs and in the selection of cities and sights to visit. With daily Mass in so many historically significant places (the Parish of English Martyrs in York; St. Aloysius Oratory Church in Oxford; St. Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Church in Canterbury; the Cathedral of St. Philip Howard in Arundel, and St. Etheldreda's and Westminster Cathedral in London!) the spiritual blessings of the pilgrimage will be as great as the historical background we'll all share. All the English Martyrs, pray for us!

The Catholic Writers Guild Blog

Have I mentioned lately how great the Catholic Writers Guild is? Look at this great post developed by Larissa Hoffman, helping me promote:

~~Two radio interviews (on the Son Rise Morning Show and Kresta in the Afternoon);
~~My article in The Catholic Answer Magazine ("Henry VIII's 'Achievement': What was the Dissolution of the Monasteries?");
~~My book; and
~~This blog.

I'll say it again--if you are a Catholic writer, you should belong to and participate in this great organization! The next big event is the annual On-line conference: more info here.

Kresta in the Afternoon Interview

If you missed my interview on Kresta in the Afternoon last week from the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show/Catholic Writers Guild Conference, here is a link.

From the Kresta in the Afternoon blog:

"Second Topic - Supremacy and Survival
Stephanie Mann is the author of Supremacy and Survival - How Catholics Endured the English Reformation and has been a guest on the show in anticipation of the Pope's visit to the UK last year. Now she joins us in person here at the Catholic Marketing Network. She tells the story of the Catholic Church's survival and restoration in one land. It serves both as a lesson and a warning of the risks to faith and freedom when absolute power is given free reign. "

At the beginning of the interview, Al Kresta said Supremacy and Survival is "an outstanding book"; he enjoyed it and appreciated my approach and tone, highlighting my "strong academic sense for accuracy but you don't get bogged down in arcane academic debates" and commenting on my "strong sense of Catholic mission but without being triumphalistic or kicking people in the face".

Good recommendation, I think!

I hope to be on his show later in the year when The Catholic Answer Magazine publishes my article on the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry VIII's reign.

Day Two Report

Find my updates here.

My CWG Conference Schedule Today

Today is the big day! I am going to attend four sessions, deliver my presentation, and talk to Al Kresta on Kresta in the Afternoon, broadcasting live from the EWTN booth at the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show. Here's the plan:

9:00 A.M. "BEING A GOOD MEDIA GUEST" (LISA HENDEY, NICK THOMM--Nick is the producer of Kresta in the Afternoon, BTW)

10:00 A.M. "EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PUBLISHING BEFORE YOU SUBMIT" (PATTI ARMSTRONG)

1:00 P.M. "BEYOND THE BLOG: YOU HAVE A BLOG, NOW WHAT?" (LISA HENDEY, SARAH REINHARD, JOE WETTERLING)

3:00 P.M. "MARKETING THE GOOD CATHOLIC WAY" (DONNA-MARIE COOPER O’BOYLE AND CLAUDIA VOLKMAN)

4:00 P.M. "HOW TO MARKET A NON-FICTION BOOK TO CATHOLIC AUDIENCES" (STEPHANIE A. MANN)

5:20-5:45 P.M. INTERVIEW: AL KRESTA BROADCASTING KRESTA IN THE AFTERNOON AT EWTN BOOTH

6:00 P.M. COLLAPSE

In the evening, there is a cocktail reception and a couple of presentations. I'll let you know later how it all goes!