Target Africa: Ideological Neo-colonialism of the Twenty-first Century. By Obianuju Ekeocha, Ignatius Press, 2018.

In this powerful and searing book, Obianuju Ekeocha provides a sharp critique of the ways that foreign aid and non-governmental organizations are trying to use their money to change the culture, morals, and society of the nations of Africa.  Ekeocha is a biomedical scientist and activist who loves Africa and is determined to prevent outside powers from reshaping the continent in their own preferred image.

Ekeocha wrote this book because of her anger over the Western powers who seek to use their power and prestige to bribe, shame, or otherwise coerce the independent nations of Africa to adopt policies and attitudes on sexuality, abortion, gender, contraception, and the family. Ekeocha notes that numerous influential philanthropists and groups ranging from charities to governments to the United Nations have very strong ideas about the directions Africa should take. Ekeocha argues that the Western forces may mean well, but they are prescribing the wrong solutions to problems, perhaps even non-existent problems facing Africa.  Indeed, Ekeocha suggests that the powers of the West could learn a few– perhaps a great many– things from the way Africa regards the family and human life.

This book is important reading for people interested in African culture and global politics, as well as people who are interested in finding out how money and influential organizations can affect governments. Ekeocha writes a woman who loves Africa, and is very proud of her culture and the attitudes and accomplishments that the continent has achieved and developed, and she is determined to prevent people who do not understand the region from changing it or buying the governments of Africa.

More information on Ekeocha and her work can be found at http://cultureoflifeafrica.com/.

–Chris Chan

George Washington: His Legacy of Faith, Character, and Courage. By Demi, Ignatius Press, 2018.

While many of the books reviewed on this website are directed towards adults seeking to expand and better understand their faith, this review will discuss a recently published book aimed at shaping the spirituality and character of young people.  In this illustrated children’s book, the prolific author and artist Demi has created a short biography of George Washington.  Special focus is placed on Washington’s leadership skills, moral views, and sense of honor, but Demi places Washington’s religious faith at the heart of this book.

The book is mostly full of imagery, consisting of Demi’s pictures, with about a paragraph of informative text on each page, providing insight on some aspect of history.  George Washingtonopens with the following statement:

“The inspiring Legacy of George Washington is one of faith, character, and courage.  It is visible through the many events told in this book.  It began even before he was born, with his ancestors who had been involved in key moments in British history.  George Washington certainly learned from their stories, as we can learn from his.”  

The first several pages cover centuries of history, focusing on Washington’s ancestors and the inspirational ways that several prominent members of his family tree shaped the character and values of their descendant.  Soon, the book moves into Washington’s own career, highlighting certain incidents that shaped the future president’s career.  Heavy stress is placed on religious and spiritual points.  Though not a Catholic himself, Washington was inspired by a book on moral behavior written by Jesuit priest when he was a young teenager.  Washington also prayed frequently, and once was inspired a miraculous vision– the details of which serve as a pivotal moment in this mini-biography.

Interestingly, Demi’s book is one of the latest entries in a developing paradigm shift in the study of the religious views of the Founding Fathers.  For generations, many biographers minimized the role that religion played in their worldviews and personal lives, stressing that most (though not all) of the Founding Fathers had a largely Deist and skeptical perspective, and therefore had no real interest in religious matters.  This was by no means a universal characterization, but it is still a prominently held belief in many historical circles.

In a first for Catholic Book Reviews Monthly, Demi has provided a brief interview regarding the book:

CHAN.  How did you get the idea to write this children's book about Washington?

DEMI.  I was inspired to write George Washington when I read of his celestial vision at Valley Forge, first published in The National Tribune, Volume 4, No. 12, December 1880 and preserved in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

CHAN.What sources did you use when researching this book?

DEMI. My sources were every picture and book I could find on George Washington. Some of my favorite books are:

Washington’s Prayers, Norristown, PA. Published for the Benefit of the           Washington Memorial Chapel, 1907.

George Washington, The Christian, William J. Johnson, Arlington, Texas, Christian Liberty Press, 1919.

The Religious Opinions of Washington, E.C. McGuire, ed., N.Y: Harper Brothers, 1836.

The Writings of George Washington, Jared Sparks, Boston, Ferdinand Andrews Publisher, 1838.

A Concise History of the American Republic, Samuel Eliot Morison, New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.

CHAN.  What lessons/morals would you like young children to learn from this book?

DEMI.  Moral lessons that young children could learn from this book would be to follow in the footsteps of George himself: At the age of 13 George began copying and memorizing The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior, written by French Jesuit priests. These rules were meant to train young men to serve God and neighbor. They helped form his sense of right and wrong, his strong faith, and his upright nature. Besides morality, faith and character, they also developed his marvelous qualities of patience, humility, giving, discipline, vigor, meditation and wisdom.

CHAN. Is there anything about Washington that you wanted to include but didn't for any reason?

DEMI.  I would have loved to include ALL of George Washington’s prayers written by himself for each day of the week; for mornings and evenings. God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ was the Light of his life.

We simply didn’t have space for them all in this book.

CHAN. What did you learn about Washington's spiritual life as you researched and wrote this book?

DEMI.  I learned about George Washington’s powerful transcendental nature as I researched his spiritual life.

George Washingtonis an excellent introduction for young children to learn about the Founding Father.  Adults may discover certain details about the man’s life that they were previously unaware of, and they may therefore be inspired to track down other studies of Washington from the list mentioned earlier.  Parents and children will find George Washingtona useful tool to help inspire a love of history, and the man depicted in Demi’s book may well serve as a model template for behavior and character for many kids.

–Chris Chan

The Age of Secularization & Pope Francis and the Caring Society

The Age of Secularization.  By Augusto Del Noce, translated by Carlo Lancellotti, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017.

Pope Francis and the Caring Society.  Edited by Robert M. Whaples, Independent Institute, 2017.

The Age of Secularization and Pope Francis and the Caring Societyare both collections of essays that discuss major issues and problems affecting society.  The Age of Secularizationis one man’s analysis on what abandonment of religion and the Christian worldview has done to European society.  Pope Francis and the Caring Societyis an anthology written by several different scholars who attempt to address various problems facing the world, and how they think that the current pontiff is handling these issues, and what advice they would offer in order to make the planet a better place.

Augusto Del Noce has been dubbed one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century by many pundits, though he is almost unknown in America at present.  An Italian scholar, Del Noce’s work is only recently being translated into English.  He was known for analyzing the political philosophies of Marxism and Fascism, as well as the socio-political consequences of atheism.  As a believer and a critic of modernity, Del Noce’s brought a fresh and analytic perspective to some important issues and trends. 

In the introduction to The Age of Secularization, the editor and translator Carlo Lancellottiwrites:

“First-time readers should keep in mind Del Noce’s habit of thinking in-history and through-history vis-à-vis his distinctive writing style.  He constantly goes back and forth in a dialectic process between historical situations and philosophical concepts, establishing feep and often surprising connections in a vast gallery of authors and ideas.  Organizationally, his preferred format is the essay, and almost all of his books are essay collections.  More than a stylistic preference, this is also a reflection of his fundamental disposition: philosophical questions arise for him inresponse to historical experience, and come as what he calls problems.  His typical procedure is to start from a “problem” (e.g., the rise of Fascism, or the affluent society, or the student movement), then identify its philosophical core, reconstruct its origins and development, and extrapolate it to its logical conclusions (often with remarkable predictive power).  Consequently, his writings are as varied, “discrete,” and apparently haphazard as history itself.  All of these characteristics are well exemplified by The Age of Secularization, which collects Del Noce’s reflections about the cultural changes of the 1960’s.”

The Age of Secularizationcontains essays such as “The Student Protests and Values,” “Tradition and Innovation,” “Technological Civilization and Christianity,” “The Dialogue between the Church and Modern Culture,” “The Political Predicament of Catholics,” and “On Catholic Progressivism.” Nearly all of them address a similar theme– what role do faithful Christians play in a secular society that is increasingly hostile to religion?   In the first part, the titular “The Age of Secularization,” Del Noce writes:

“Truly secularism has never been in a worse position, in the sense of being incapable of generating new ideals.  When it tries, it can only anoint contradictorily as “new value” what by nature is unaxiological,(what cannot be the foundation of values directly, even though it takes value through mediation): namely, science in its connection with technology, and primitiveness or vitality.  It can only re-propose two utopias, which ran through the whole modern age after being already present at its beginning.  But in the past they could bear a semblance of validity because they were associated with other values.  Today, on the contrary, they manifest themselves in a pure state, and the result is the peculiar combination of the greatest perfection of means with the greatest confusion about goals, which Einstein already regarded as the defining characteristic of our age many years ago.”

Del Noce’s essays are not easy reading, but they are rewarding and thought-provoking.  Dense but clever, Del Noce’s work will provide a refreshing view of our current culture and political systems and attitudes, though the reader will get what the reader puts into reading them.  The more one knows about modern and classical history and politics and philosophy, the richer one’s understanding of The Age of Secularizationwill be.

In comparison, Pope Francis and the Caring Societyaddresses various social, economic, and political issues that the authors wish use as a means of comparing their work to the comparable policies advocated by the current pope.  It should be noted that most of the criticisms are not directly aimed at theological matters, but rather at issues like widespread Argentinian attitudes towards capitalism, and controversies in environmental science.  

The essays in this book include Andrew M. Yuengert’s “Pope Francis, His Predecessors, and the Markey,” Gabriel X. Martinez’s “Uneven Playing Fields: Markets and Oligarchy,” A.M.C. Waterman’s “Pope Francis on the Environmental Crisis,” and Allan C. Carlson’s “The Family Economics of Pope Francis.”

In the introduction, Michael Novak writes:

“This marvelous book,Pope Francis and the Caring Society, is much needed and could not have come at a better time. Completed in response to Pope Francis’s invitation in Laudato si’to a dialogue on the economy, the environment, and charity, the book shares his commitment to Judeo-Christian teachings and institutions. In the process, the book’s authors are seeking constructively to engage and educate civic and business leaders and the general public to understand the legacy and meaning of the natural law, moral and economic principles of liberty, personal responsibility, enterprise, civic virtue, family and community, and the rule of law. 

The education of each pope begins anew when he is elected to office. For he is no longer a member of one nation only, but now of a universal community. He must learn, for example, about economics as practiced in other parts of the world besides his own. Notably, Pope John Paul II spent his youth under Nazism and then Communism and was not familiar with how life was lived under other economic and political systems. It took him a while to develop a universal vision in these arenas. Most of the Italian popes before him had similar experiences. Likewise, it would be odd if Pope Francis were not now expanding his own view of political and economic affairs.”

Most readers will find a lot of controversial opinions in both of these books, but as stated earlier, both books provide some thought-provoking explorations into the role that faith and Catholic doctrines can and ought to play in contemporary social policy.  Whatever one’s personal opinions on these matters, it is important to explore the nature of how we and others come by our worldviews and attitudes towards the systems that guide the globe, and to ask whyand howvarious ideas gain and keep popularity and currency.

Welcome to the new Catholic Book Reviews Monthly Blog!

Welcome to the new Catholic Book Reviews Monthly Blog!

This is a continuation of the old website (http://catholicbookreviewsmonthly.com).  I'll continue to post regular reviews of religious-themed books, and I'll also reprint old reviews from the original site.

To old readers and new ones, I hope that you find these reviews interesting and informative!


–Chris Chan, reviewer.