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70 F I R S T TH

one m .n .11 le.isi le.iin so m et hi ng . Thai assuiiu s. olcou rse, ihai we al l have muc h lo lea rn.Th ru ih ei e is .m oih ci .S oiilh rin U.iptist offi( ia i.also inilteil al nnotlu i.d ai 11\ it it s ou lsiilr the o ihii olhieraiihit . lUontiol (so luiu h loi i lx \. iuni< t l Bapliside\t>tuni to null p( luli iu r l . w bo got s on lo sav ihatlu' has leaineil l iom tiflu lal talks wiih (iai l ioli t s that"unless t ine oi t he ecum enica l ( oun ci l s decreed it o runles s the P op e decre ed it to be t>flii iai do gm a, not>ilu'r (.a iho li t sig na tur es on a t int umeiit m ak e anydiffeieii t e antl lu lu e are g i . i u n io n s/ ' So "T he (i i l t ()fSalvat i tm" simply doesn' t inat tci . 1 don'i know wh.ilCatholics he's heen l . i lknig lo. hti i hv th. i t nu . tsuie.except for one lnlalhblc del ini t ion i i i I'J.'JO and theSecond \ ' a t i can Counci l , every Catbol i c book,episct>pal staiemeni. and pafxil dot uinent of thiscen iurv is gra tui to us ant l ma kes no di fferent e . I tseems all t)f ns Cathti l ics who are in any wayinvolved in the theological project might as wel lpack up an t l t ake a perm ane nt vaca t ion .The mitial it spouse it) "The Gift t)f Salvatit>n" bya handful of Southern Baptist t ifficials is verydisappoint ing. Ftniunatclv. thev do not reflecl theposi t ive recept ion t ) t the statemenl among bothEvangel i ca l s and Cath ol i cs . Th i s is connected a l soto the const ruct ive rethinking that took place in therecent Synod for America convt)ked by Jt>hn Paul II.where Lat in American bishops t t )ok a giant st r ide inrecogniz ing evangel i ca l Pro tes t an t s i n the i r count ryas brothers and sisters in C-hrisi . But that is pan of abigge r siory to w hi th I wi l l i t turn at a no t lu i

ABSOLUTELY FREEIn a forthc om ing issue there will be an extensivere \ iew of Ro cco Buttiglit^ne s outstanding book.Karol Wojtyla: The Thou ght of the Man WhoBecame John Paul II, just out from Eerdmans ($35).For the m om ent, a fe v thou gh ts on the afterword bythose who so capably translated it from the Italian,Paolo Guietti and Francesca M urphy. Th ere is thetricky tjuestitm of the relationship between thewritings of Karol Wojtyla. the philosopher, andJtjhn Paul II. the Poj)e. As the translato rs noie:"Beco ming Pop e is not the besi way to acquire fameas a think er; it is more comm on, and generallyeasier, to achieve a (sometimes justified)philo soph ical respeclability by getting inio troublewith Popes and o lher powerless authorities ." A stillmo re serious factor is noted by Bulliglion e: "Th ecriteria and the hermeneutical methtjds ofph ilos op hic al thou ght differ from lht>se which can

ilx phil osop her Wojtyla, but the acts of hisl)r( thces stjrsan d the entire Mag isterium of the(^hurdi in ils histtirit al tievelt>])ment."Yei a < tin lit { lion between the plulostjpher anI*t)pe there certainly is. Guielti and Murphyt om 11 It111 on a nun h cailiei woik by Cieorge1 lunsion Williams, The Mind of John Paul II, wils suggestitHi tha t, be cause Wojtyla was a Polewriting under a ttHalilarian regime, he did notiintlt rsiand ihc Amerit an mind antl ihe principlihe litf stK isimay be ihe case. " It appears after readingBiiiiiglione," iluy rem ark, "thai Wojlyla does nounderstaiui anything but freedom and itsrelationship with the truth, which can be presenfreely only to a pe rson ." T he reference, of courseto The Acting Person, Wojtyla's seminal workwritten dm ing the years of Vatican C ouncil II.

They con tinue : "From a po litical point of viewWt)jtyla knt>ws that relativism, tfie dismissal of tleads to the primac y of power a nd political tyranWe could say thai he defends truth in order to savfreedom. In other w ords, it seems that he valuesfreedom mt)re than truth, and is ready to suborditbe right s of tru th to frtedtim . which is the most truth of the dignity of the person. The mostim po rtan t t ruth for him seems to be a person'sfreedom. ... It is with regard to religious freedomfreedom of religion or freedom of conscience, thatradititinalists may find Wojtyla's und erstandin gbe far ttK) Am erica n. The late /Vrchbishop MarceLefebvTe described in w ords and pictu res the vicof freedom (liberalism) over t ru th as the defeat ofEuropean and good French traditions by theAmerit an way of life. To an integrist mind 'religfreedom' trium ph ed over the last of its oppo nentwith \'atican II. Wojtyla's thesis on religious freew(juld therefore be the obsession of a brilliant yophilosop hical mind w hich was prematurely expto the revolutionary spirit of Vatican II."Mo re Polish than Jeffersonian

So it may seem, but there is much more to it tthat. Tho se wh o have lived under regimes ofunfreedt)m may understand freedom much bettethan those who take freedom ior granted. Theremay appea r 10 be a smootb fit between Jeffersonidea of religious freedom and the declaration onreligious freedom adopted by the Council,Dignitatis Humanae. "The twt) doc trines m aycoincide materialiter, as an Aristotelian scholaswould put it. bill not form aliter. The American Polish bisht)ps may both have voted for DignitaHumanae, but they did so for different reasons."American Ft>unders, and Jefferson in particulawere motivated by the desire to liberate politics religion, while Wojtyla and the Council Fathers

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Wt>jiyla utulersiotitl (and understands) ihata puhlit re.dity wiih ptiliiit .ilcalit)ns . Thai is why. as John Paul II. lu hasy ancl "a ihiiilv

Cetitesimus Annus). As Gu ietti andput it, "The disap pea ran ce t f religion is the

ugates a nation from w it h in .. .. When abst>luteeven mtiial and religitiiis abst)Iuies, are lt)sl.ivism consum es itself; where there are noes. nt)l hin gc an be said tt) be 'better iha n.' not

oi the mt>st pt>werful mem bers of society dobecome absolute by virtue of their po wer, but areRelati\ ii"(, of course, is a dan ger much lamen ted.he assertion of the abso lute is not to d isplaceativity. O n the contrary, by asserting the absolute,

On HumanWhile religion is too pow erful to alltiwt>figion is an illusion. Po litical agn osticism , thesible only w here peop le kneel to so meth ing

is politics as religion, which ise error app ea rin g in this century on both the lefthe right, as in N ational Socialism andvarious movem ents subscribin g to the m axim

he personal is the politic al, a nd vice versa.

ationship with G od.Among the most insightful discussions ine existentialism of the you ng S artre. Th e earliere arrived at the p oint where the "I" could only

IS other p eople"). Sartre had reached a dead-

to achieve a hig her synthesis. But ofas it turned o ut, Sartre soug ht that synthesis

that Sarire rejected, moving existential personalismtt>waid its ftilfillmt'nl in Clhrislian faith.(iiiitiii antl Miii|)hy pul it this way: ".Sariremaim a ins ih.ii il iheit- is a Ciod ih ere ca nn t)l befreedom; therefore, since it is evident ihal we arefree, there must be noGotI, Wojlyla ttuilentis ifiat ifthere is a Cit)d there is IrtM-dtun, and the histfjry olthis century demonstrates the factual connectionbetween atheism and maximal t)ppression offrt'cdt)m. W ojtyla's anthrop tjlogy of freedt)m is asmodern as Sartre's. F'or .Sartre, being religious is theopposite of being free; for Wt>jtyla, just as for Picodella Mirandola, being religious and being free areone and the same." I assume our reviewer willconcentrate on Rocco Buttiglione's most persuasiveanalysis in Karol Wojlyla: Thr Thought cjf the ManWho Became John Paul II, but the suggestiveafterword by the translato rs is also someth ing not tobe missed in this remarkable book. For thephilo,sophically and theologically minded, it willrem ain indispensable, even after we are blessed w ithwhat promises to be the definitive biography of JohnPaul II and history of this pontificate by GeorgeWeigel. which is schetluled foi 1999.r r

W H I L E W E ' R E A T I T Would you believe this? Of course you wou ld. Apamphlet. "Guide to Bias-Free Communication."put out by the State of Georgia's "Supreme CourtCommission on Equality" and endorsed by ChiefJustice R obert Benh am. It's filled w ith linguisticcontortions of the PC kind. Item: "The judge shouldallow co unsel to present their cases in their ownstyles." It doesn't say what to do if the re's only onecounsel and he has only one style. Perhaps he is to justgo along with the game of multiple personalities.Item: "Forem an" is out . "Ft^reperson" is in.Foreperson? If you think that sounds just a bitsalaciou s, confession is Saturday at four. And h ere Iwas just readin g this article on how the South is thecountry's best hope for resisting the sundry sillinessesgenerated by the decadent coasts. Bui of course theSupreme Court is based in Atlanta, which, Tm told,has the motto, "The city that's too busy too think," orsom ething like that. I notice also that the great sealof the Supreme Ct)url of Georgia is emblazoned with"Wi.sdom, Justice, M odera tion." So where are"Inclusivity" and "Sensitivity"? Just wait. According to Dr. Pieter Ad m iraal. leader of theeuthanasia movement in the Netherlands. Americans

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