BOOK REVIEW: Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety

April 14, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE: This book review is sponsored by the Religious Education Media Center as a service to those interested in developing their own spirituality. Books featured in this column can be borrowed from the diocesan media center.

You may request this or other books by writing Deacon Larry Sitzman, Religious Education Media Center, 1821 Jackson St., Sioux City, IA 51102, e-mail him at larrys@scdiocese.org or phone (712) 255-7933. The reference code number for the book is pr 1502.72.

Father Edward Girres, team pastor for the Catholic team parishes of Webster County offers a book review of - Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety, by Richard Rohr, O.F.M., with John Bookser Feister. St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2001.

In this book, Hope Against Darkness, Father Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, gives the reader a thoughtful reflection on living the Catholic faith at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

The six chapters in Part One: The Current Dilemma describe our time as "postmodern" and that the postmodern mind is beset by a "deconstructed" worldview. In the postmodern and deconstructed approach to all aspects of life one finds no absolutes, no patterns that are always true. One is allowed to question anything and everything. Institutions like marriage or the church are not respected as having any inherent value, body of knowledge or tradition that is to be respected and listened to. In this nihilistic worldview vulgarity and shock become primary values. One's own thoughts and feelings are truth, and so it's a time of extreme self-absorption. As a result many people in our time find no meaning in life and have distanced themselves from finding anything sacred or holy-anything of value. The Christian gospel and the best in the Catholic tradition can be an antidote to this postmodern mindset.

One chapter constitutes Part Two: Francis the Rebuilder and specifically deals with Francis of Assisi as one who can show us the way toward "reconstruction." The Church in Francis' time, like the church in all times, including our own, is always in need of reform. Francis was a reformer and a transformative power in the church and world of his time. Rohr lifts up Francis as an example because Francis loved the church and stayed in the church. But Francis did move out of the mainstream and engaged in gospel living like no one had seen before, and thus brought about positive, Christian change through the living of poverty and living in love, joy and freedom.

In the final six chapters of Part Three: Finding a Third Way reflects upon some major pathways toward reconstruction. Two approaches to facing deconstruction are "fight" or "flight." The third way is to be like Francis, stay in the Church, cherish the best of its teaching and tradition and become a transformative power within. In these chapters he explores our need for a total picture of reality-a reality that reveals the presence of God; the interconnectedness of all people and things in God; the power of forgiveness; the acknowledgement of limits in life; and living in darkness. Rohr's concluding chapter presents six modern-day models of reconstruction of whom he says: "...these people offer inspiration to those who would build a culture of meaning, one anchored in tradition, yet open to the future, formed by what I called before 'transformative traditionalism.'"

Hope Against Darkness is a good book for our time. Rohr inspires us to be positive builders of meaning and gospel living in a time of deconstruction. The book reads like a talk. Therefore it has a feel of a "stream of consciousness" more than a logical and systematic presentation and elucidation of a thesis or ideas. At the end of the table of contents the authors note that the book began with an audiocassette series by Father Rohr and that chapter two is adapted from a talk Father Rohr gave at a Religious Education Conference in Los Angeles. The book does not contain any footnotes, endnotes or bibliography. Any references to authors or works are mentioned in the text.