Columbia University Press, 2009
Marian Ronan
If you yourself feel, or if you observe in others, a long-standing malaise or an undefinable discomfort with the Roman Catholic Church and wonder why it seems to be incurable, this is the book for you. Marian Ronan is a creative, multi-disciplinary author who skillfully weaves together theology, human psychology, and literary analysis to arrive at a probable explanation for the current state of spiritual ennui in so many Catholics “of a certain age.”
Ronan’s chronological starting point is the period immediately following Vatican Council II, when hopes were high that the reforms emanating from the Council would bring about a church more united, more in touch with the cultures around it and more energized by the spirit of Jesus. Her exploration begins with the question: “What went wrong?” and she concludes that the current problem is rooted in the dashed hopes and expectations of Catholics after Vatican II, and their inability to work through their profoundly “devastating disappointment.” The 1968 re-banning of birth control, and the 1976 condemnation of work for women’s ordination, alongside the molasses-like slowness of society’s advances in civil rights, in women’s liberation, in gay liberation, and the Viet Nam War’s troubling ambiguity all contributed to the deepening malaise.
It is true that other perceptive historians or social analysts might arrive at a similar conclusion, but Ronan’s teaching technique is exceptionally creative. She selects four Catholic U.S. authors of fiction and autobiography (James Carroll, Mary Gordon, Donna K. Haraway and Richard Rodriguez) and deftly analyzes their separate major works as revelations of their personal progression in mourning realities of American Catholic life. In each author’s writing Dr. Ronan finds un-mourned spiritual or religious loss, yet points out in each of the four whatever observable progress can be found in her or his work. She utilizes the authors’ varied genres (autobiography, fiction, fictionalized autobiography, and science-fiction), and this will appeal to a variety of readers.
Marian Ronan is an author who has the gift of looking at the Catholic Church quite objectively and quite lovingly. She seamlessly incorporates brief vignettes from her own life (Philadelphia Irish Catholic) to illustrate her points. And through it all she crafts the structure of this book in exquisite language. There is a challenging density in some sections, which only proves the truism that “anything worthwhile takes effort.” It will be well worth the reader’s time and concentration to mine the gold in this book.
(For an interview with M. Ronan, see www.cup.columbia.edu/statis/ronan-interview.)
Mary Jeremy Daigler, RSM