A reader who I had the pleasure of chatting with out in Columbus at the recent “Deep in History” conference writes:
Talking with you was the highlight of my weekend at the Coming Home Network Conference. I truly enjoyed it. I just finished your new book. I know, what took me so long? But I had to sleep sometime. Anyhow, great book. Loved it. The only thing I was surprised by was one little quibble regarding Ps 22. When Jesus says, “My God, my God ...” it is a reference to the whole Todah psalm. He is telling Mary, this is what is happening around you. I am a Todah sacrifice but the end of the chapter goes on to say that “I will proclaim you among the brothers …”, in other words, I’ll be back. Have hope Mary. Don’t despair. It was one of those cool break through moments after coming into the Catholic Church when I learned that. How could God turn his back on God? There is no logic there. Anyhow, loved the book. Trying to get a friend of mine in Ohio that is looking at the church to get a copy. The topic of discussion we had two weeks before the conference was on authority. So would fit right in. Keep up the amazing work that you do. Hope to run into you again someday.
I’m not sure which of my books he has in mind, but I think he means By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition.
Dear reader: I understand what you are saying about Psalm 22 and the Todah (“Thanksgiving”) sacrifice and agree with it. However, my point is that, to somebody unfamiliar with Jewish scripture (like yer average ancient pagan), this and other passages from the Gospels are not something that anybody inventing the story would include. If you are an apostolic fraud with a dead rabbi on your hands and you are trying to fake him up as a god for a bunch of suckers, you don’t put words that sound like cries of powerlessness and despair on his lips, just as you don’t have him ask questions or profess ignorance. That looks bad. A fake god does not say, “Of that day and that hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son.” Gods are supposed to be omniscient and such statements therefore raised awkward questions. So (if you are a liar writing fiction) you have him say, “I know when the End is, but you are not worthy to be told.” Similarly you don’t record, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” You don’t record, “Who touched me?” You don’t record that he was crucified at all, but invent some other way to end the story (such as the Islamic expedient of having Judas get crucified and Jesus whisked away to heaven). Much tidier and more obviously a happy ending. Otherwise, you will find yourself with exactly the problem the apostles had: fellow Jews who say, “Cursed is every one who is hanged upon a tree.”
In short, my point is that the Gospel writers do record these things — because they are not faking up a story but recording what happened and letting the chips fall where they may. They have the first mark of honest witnesses in that they record things which seem at a prima facie level to obviously look bad to their case.
Thanks for a thoughtful question!
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Seems like the end of the last sentence, or even a whole paragraph, is missing…
Sounds like he went a little buggy. But I can appreciate the dilemma: the blogospere business model remains inscrutable to me.
If I did read, I’d buy the book too. But as it is, there’s only room for one or two books in my cell - and both of these are the Bible. My eyes are growing dim nevertheless.
Guys like Mark Shea deserve financial support for the great and important work they’re doing. In days gone by they would have published newspapers and gotten rich. But now, everything is available for free on the web. Nevertheless, he still has to feed his family.
And I suspect he has an even greater need to feed his “family of the faith” a spiritual food. Or else why would he be out there abandoning his catholic soul to atheists and protestants and worldling catholics, for the price of a song?
It’s probably not for the pancid.
OH NO! Mark must have been writing his column and just when he was typing out the last line, a NINJA snuck up behind and knocked him out! I think the Register can expect a ransom note at any time now.
Reading his by-line , my guess of the book title is “Mary, Mother of the Son”?
d’oh! Fixed it! Sorry!
Matt:
I don’t understand what you are talking about. I’ve abandoned my soul? And what is a pancid?
Abandoned in the sense of surrendered or submitted. “Lucretia abondoned herself to the rough hands of the TSA behemoth. She was determined to see her dying grandmother one more time.”
Pancid is a favorite (and really tasty) dish favored by Filipino Catholics, who love to serve it at meetings and conferences. (I may have the spelling wrong. A google search tells me pancid is also an antibiotic.)
My misunderstanding, born from your partial post, was that this blog was an appeal for fundraising though book sales or contributions to EWTN. Although this was obviously insentient, I will repeat my assertions that 1) I don’t know how anybody survives as a writer, even a good one, in the internet age; 2) After reading your blogs, I expect that I would enjoy your books, except that God does not allow me such luxuries any more; and 3) That your intentions are obviously evengelistic, not materialistic, for the reasons stated above. Hence the pancid reference, which is the sole recompense (in a worldly sense) for participants at Catholic conferences “down by me.”
I’m hoping now that the kleig passes on to worthier considerations.
Matt B:
Ah! I get it.
Well, for what it’s worth, 1) you’re right that nobody is a Catholic writer if their goal is to get rich (though I have encountered numerous people who live under the delusion that this is why I and others became Catholic writers. It goes with an entire fantasy narrative about Evil Protestants converting in search of riches and power in our sinister attempt to protestantize the Church and become Rich and Famous, etc. I now have an entire fictional life that has been described for me by various interlocutors who inform me that I was once a Protestant pastor who, like Alexander with no more worlds left to conquer, became Catholic in the hope of reshaping the Church to my will. I discover that I have my own TV show, that I burn with jealousy of Glenn Beck’s superior ratings, that I am fabulously rich from my writings and that, together with other evil converts like Jimmy Akin and Scott Hahn, am scheming to sully the purity of Truly True Catholic Faith with our mongrelized, protestantized Novus Ordo fake catholyc Church. Amazing the things I learn from some in the blogosphere :); 2) I understand, and; 3) yeah.
FWIW, I customarily provide a link when one of my books is under discussion since I have no qualms about either referring people to my work, nor about the occasional off chance that somebody might buy one of my books (though this link has not resulted in any sales, which is normal). I figure Paul’s right when he says the worker is worth his wages.
Mark, not to be too controversial about it, but I see you as different from Akin and Hahn. Akin is the quintessential apologist. Hahn is a college professor. But you are above all a “writer.” There are two bits of evidence that support this assessment: Akin is associated with Catholic Answers, Hahn with Steubenville. But you have two tags: a distinctive style and prolific output. These are the marks of a writer, regardless of the strain.
I’m not one to lay blame for a person profiting by their ability and effort, so even if you were “getting rich” by writing, it would not be a bad mark to me. I’m only a casual peruser of the internet, but I see your many bylines. To me this represents talent and effort - so much the more that you’re putting it to work for the kingdom. However, I sincerely doubt that you’re “getting rich.”
I only wonder how someone who is clearly just a “writer,” and not a full-time teacher, or someone subsidized by a “ministry,” can put bread on the table, or have the income stream to dare having children. To me this is a great act of faith in and of itself. I know that Chesterton died a millionaire, and that even Shakespeare was well off. But they have to be the exceptions to the rule. There’s a thousand Garrett Artistes for every Shakespeare.
So my question to you is not as a catholic apologist, or as an expert in theology, but as a writer: how do you write professionally in the 21st century? To push the comparison a little further: Shakespeare was better known as a theatrical producer than as an author of earth-shattering poetry (he was compared unfavorably by his contemporaries to scribblers time has forgotten). Chesterton published newspapers, and was a social raconteur.
What’s the business model for the “New Catholic Writer?”
If responding to this question requires divulging trade secrets, I fully understand if you ignore it. And remember - only 30 more shopping days until Christmas!
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