Like many Catholics, I've read a lot more about Christopher West than I have read things by Christopher West. I am very familiar with what his critics say, and also with what his fans say. And when I read his newest book, Fill These Hearts, I discovered that his critics and fans are both right, up to a point.
Fill These Hearts doesn't have any new ideas in it -- and this is a good thing. West has woven together many old and extremely important ideas and presented them for a new audience, one that desperately needs to hear the message that he brings. His writing is clear, accessible, and easy to understand -- but the ideas in it are profound.
He systematically demolishes the false notion that Christ wants us to squelch our desires -- that "eros . . . is the enemy of holiness [and] a list of burdensome rules and rote prayers are . . . the means to it" (Fill These Hearts, 15). Again and again, West shows, through Scripture, the Catechism, and quotes from the saints, that we are purposely designed by God as creatures who desire, and that growing in holiness means learning to re-align our bodily desires toward their true ends. He says that, when we confront our natural desires (for food, alcohol, and sex, among others), we can respond either as "stoic, addict, or mystic ... The option I choose," says West, "... indicates whether I'm learning to direct my desire according to God's design so that it launches me to my destiny." (32)
I appreciate West's generosity in describing the human experience -- our struggles, our disappointments, our confusion, and our pleasures. Many authors, when dealing with the problem of how to purify our desires, show disdain or disgust for human weakness. West is not flippant about the seriousness of sins of the flesh, and he treats sinners with dignity (and doesn't fail to include himself among the sinners). This approach highlights both a strength and a weakness of West's writing: he makes a huge effort to discover profound truths in pop culture, constantly referencing rock songs, movies, and even YouTube videos. He acknowledges that, when The Bangles sang, "Am I only dreaming / Or is this burning an eternal flame?" that they're asking something real, expressing a genuine yearning of the human heart.
And yet . . . The Bangles? One of the messages of this book is that even the most trivial of pop culture is full of yearning and longing, and that this is no coincidence: it expresses something true and profound about humanity. And I understand the need to show that the truths of the Catholic faith speak to 21st-century people, and are not just dusty and outmoded cultural artifacts. But relevance is a two-edged sword. While West chooses his quotes carefully, and finds genuinely insightful questions in the top 40 chart, there is a problem: I get most of his references. But I'm 38 years old, and I am most emphatically out of the pop culture loop. So anyone even slightly younger or hipper than I will likely put Madonna and the 2011 movie Friends with Benefits in the same dusty, outmoded, irrelevant category as they would Bonaventure and Aristotle (whom West also quotes).
Luckily, West samples liberally from the wisdom of every century, and makes a point of alternating the more accessible and poignant words of Therese of Liseiux, Pope Benedict XVI, Louis de Montfort, Augustine, Caryll Houselander and so on with the words of Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc. So, maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. You certainly can't accuse West of being either too stodgy or too hep; and most of the time, his juxtapositions of new and old work well.
Another common criticism of West is that he puts an unnecessary emphasis on enjoining people to listen to their desires -- that he seems to be arguing against a asceticism which is hardly the major plague of our time. It's hard to argue with this objection. He is very careful to repeat, in many places, that he is not advocating licentiousness, and he devotes many passages to describing the misery the comes of following "the culture's 'fast-food gospel' -- the promise of immediate gratification through indulgence of desire." (23) He argues that lust and licentiousness lead to Hell, and he speaks of selfless love.
And yet he does not discuss chastity until page 127!
When he does get there, it is a moving, insightful and illuminating discussion, and offers some brief but helpful advice for how to get out of the pit of lust, and how to listen to God's response to your prayers. But there remains the problem of emphasis. I can imagine a young person reading this book and coming away with the idea -- purely because of the emphasis in it, and not because of any specific passage -- that God wants us to do whatever feels good, as long as it seems like love. Please note, West does not say this! He says the opposite. But he does not say it firmly enough. As any teacher ought to know, it's not enough to tell your students the truth: you have to use all your powers to make them understand that context is everything.
This imbalance in emphasis is frustrating, because there is so much valuable in the book. As I said, it brings old ideas to a new audience. Where else will a new generation hear, so clearly stated, how to tell the difference between freedom and license, between lust and love? When is the last time you heard someone exhorting you to be perfectly honest before God? Who else is writing about the beauty of self-denial, or about the eternal truths that our biological forms hint at? Who else speaks so frankly about the frustration we feel when we hear everyone preaching about how good and generous and merciful God is -- while our own experience is just the opposite?
West does all of these things very well, and his writing is often gorgeous and lyrical. He has a trick of introducing an analogy which seems trivial and handy, and then bringing it back later, unexpectedly drawing out a deeper significance. His words are encouraging, full of hope, brimming with joy as he speaks of what God offers us, and full of sympathy as he describes the temptations we all face.
I liked this book. I sighed and clicked my tongue at this book. I wrote question marks and exclamation points in the margins. Sometimes I shook my head in frustration, and sometimes my face flushed with delight as I read. I recommend it. But I recommend that any reader keeps in mind that West's point of view is only part of the picture as we work toward understanding the role of desire in our lives.
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Yes. It’s that context thing again. I cannot recall having read any of West’s books but perhaps this would a place to start. For myself I always try to keep in mind that grace builds on nature.
I think this is a very insightful reading of West. Of course, reading theology with a hermaneutic of charity is vitally important, and you have done that well. I can imagine that it can be highly problematic for authors in the field to connect with multi-generational audiences. The references to the culture do tend to hit Gen X firmly on the chin, but we have two generations of adults to follow… Nonetheless, I can imagine West himself would agree with you that desire is so much more, goes deeper than a 150 page book could do. I appreciate the contribution to the conversation, however, which though containing “nothing new” seems ever more new in the context of culture.
I want to read this…but I’ve read other books on the subject so i probably won’t be confused. But I’m worried if it will be someone’s first book on the subject :/ perhaps you could recommend another book that should be read first??
In both reading and listening to Christopher West (though not this new book - yet!) I always thought he was trying to reach out to people like me (us?) - products of public school health classes, saturated in the secular culture of music and movies and language UNTIL we discover or re-discover the truth of the Catholic Church.
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Though we have found the truth we still think of many areas - especially perhaps love and sex - in the language of masses rather a more gentile approach of the Church. In some circles, we can be made to feel embarrassed by our comfort with talking about sex openly but here we are doing it….and Christopher West is a huge help in moving our minds and our hearts out of the health class and back to Christ where they belong (and should have remained).
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I agree that not everyone will enjoy reading him but then again that is true of any other writer.
Let me preface this by saying that I haven’t read his more recent work — I listened to all the “Naked Without Shame” tapes ten or eleven years ago — and I am only superficially familiar with the criticisms that led to the hiatus.
In your piece you wonder about his arguing against an asceticism that is hardly the problem of our age. I wanted to suggest why I think this line of argument is not all that crazy. I think it is a sort of meta-argument meant to demonstrate that the Church doesn’t demand asceticism of that sort from us, at least if it isn’t our calling. If someone is holding back from full communion with the Church, or fully living out the Christian life, because they fear it will demand that kind of asceticism, then the knowledge that West at least stands within the Church and argues persuasively “the Church teaches us that sex within marriage is good, holy, that the desires of the body are gifts, etc,” will help. It is a kind of invitation to those who understand that sex itself is not the problem — “Come in. We don’t think that sex is the problem either. Let me show you what is the real problem: Using people for pleasure.”
I think one effect of the anti-ascetic argument is to reassure and welcome people who have been told the Church thinks sex is bad, and who know that it isn’t. It gives them what the outside world might call a “sex-positive” way to explain the pain and suffering that they see around them that is rooted in sexual behavior. And when they see that the Church’s arguments are on their side, not against them, they may listen to more.
In short: it is an evangelization tool, not just a piece of rhetoric.
I’ve never read West, because nothing I’ve ever seen about West or quoted from West indicates he has anything to say to married people (or anyone) who aren’t highly sexed. Yes, it is important to have outreach, and I buy the argument that he’s not trying to pursuade devout married folks. But really, when I read his quotes, or those by some others who are trying to talk to married Catholic (Popcaz, etc.), I want to say, “hey! what about those of us whose experience of sex in marriage hasn’t been anything like this??”
@anon4this, I don’t think I conveyed this in this short review, but West isn’t speaking only about sex and sexual desire in this book. His goal is to help people identify the longings of all kinds, that all people are born with, as a longing for eternity.
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@bearing, Yes, I’m glad you clarified that. People are driven away or discouraged from religion because they think it’s going to be nothing but a list of “shalt nots,” and a major part of West’s work is to correct that notion. I still retain my concern that he can be easily misread, but I guess it’s not his fault if people are looking for loopholes!
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I absolutely LOVED the later chapters on chastity, and thought the quality of writing was much higher. I wish West would write (or has he already written?)a book that spends less time persuading people that the Church loves sex, and helping us figure out HOW to love sex.
Simcha,
I imagine that your statement ‘his critics and fans are both right, up to a point,’ would be true for everyone of us at some point in our lives. Whether we discern that this is a time to turn from the prison that is perfectionism or discern that, yes, there is an area of my life/work/actions that needs to grow - we will all face it.
I think West is someone who knows and targets his audience well. You write that his examples are outdated and his message is not strong enough for younger audiences. My guess is that he was not targeting a younger, hipper crowd, but a 38 year old mother such as myself.
Some suggest when writing a book to -write what you know. Others say - write what you like. I think West has done both. If his book pushes someone to write a book for a younger audience, great. Authors that write to too wide of an audience, end up appealing to no one.
I have not yet read West’s latest book, but I’m familiar with his earlier books and talks. No book can cover everything. My guess is that this book builds on his earlier works and takes the reader further along the JP2’s theology of the body. I highly recommend starting with his early books and audio. Read and listen several times to get a good understanding of the basics, then proceed to the more advanced materials. West is reminding us that we do not have to wait till the Second Coming to be transformed by grace to such a degree that we can actually live purely and chastely with ease and joy. This is hard to believe, hence the difficulties some people have with his work. That West has received this grace is clear from his works. I have received this grace too, and I am sure many others as well. it is a grace given, perhaps, only to the weakest of us. Those who are strong may have to fight the battles, through prayer, asceticism, discipline, etc. but at whatever stage we are at, the power of the Cross to transform us this side of heaven is real indeed. God bless.
I’ve been down that road where West was and it actually took his lecture shown on EWTN that made me realize that what I thought all along was basically trash (and that was a few years ago, before the criticisms). I think his work should be taken as an introduction or just one of many, together with other works such as Confessions, or Peter Kreeft’s. I am Catholic but never taught even some of the basics of the Catechism, and I needed a RE-introduction through West, Divine Mercy, Fr. Spitzer, and then I became friends with priests, again. When a person is in the mud, you have the stick to get them out first, then clean them with a hose. Personally, this is struggle that will be with me til the end, as all my other sins.
By the way, great article again, Simcha. I get what you mean and what the other comments mean too.
I’m a 50 something with 30 something children. We love Christopher West’s Introduction to Theology of the Body. In my personal experience he speaks to a wide age group. This latest book is more of the same teaching in my opinion and you would be better off watching his dvd presentations on Theology of the Body.
We have never heard anyone speak as plainly and simply about Catholic teaching on human sexuality and make it something we can relate to. We’re just normal, average working people, not scholars, theologians or teachers. If you (like us) can barely stay awake watching the usual dry, boring Catholic video seminars, you may be pleasantly surprised with Christopher’s style. His dvd’s changed our lives and marriages.
West’s point, that spiritual realities are mediated through physicality has more general application:
If I do my job - which I now hate - my family will have a roof. If I get a second job instead of watching the superbowl, we might steer that blimp away from the domed stadium. If I eat bread and drink water, maybe my relatives in Ethiopia will avoid starvation.
Not just blessing, but specific communication is possible. If I wake to a foggy morning three days in a row, I can discern my friend in San Francisco is in a funk. If my house, which was in perfect order a day ago, is now in shambles, I can tell that my spiritual buddy is reading Christopher West.
Focused commmunication is also possible. I can hug my son and tell him how much I love him; and across the country this same message is being delivered between mother and son. I can read 20 pages of Flaubert as if I was having a conversation with Madame Bovary herself.
Thank you, Simcha, for being a light in this internet darkness. This discussion is focused and relevant. I guess that with West I always thought that 5 minutes of factification was worth a week of weepy wandering.
Not very enthused over C.West’s Books and prefer to stay with Pope JPII’s “Theology of the Body.”
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