cvw@research.att.com (10/25/89)
Another book that offers some challenging thoughts about wealth is Michael Warren's *Faith, Culture, and the Worshipping Community* (Paulist Press, 1989), which is an extended discussion of the uphill battle the church faces in confronting popular culture when most of its members are much more immersed in that culture than in the church. Like the book cited by another posting, and indeed like the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops' Pastoral on the Economy, Warren's book suggests that the developed world's propensity to consume resources out of all proportion to its population is symptomatic of serious sin. He also returns several times to consider the murders of some 300 catechists by Guatemalan death squads, asking if Christians can imagine a religion teacher in the U.S. being considered so subversive by the government that it would take steps to kill him. So some "conservatives" (like William F. Buckley of *Mater, Si! Magistra, No!* fame) probably won't like what Warren has to say. On the other hand, Warren also has scathing comments about making radical individual autonomy for human beings an ultimate good, and about the equation of personal growth with growth in spirituality or the equation of warmth and intimacy with Christian community. So some "liberals" won't like some of what Warren has to say either. I sent an earlier note about this book, which the moderator posted, but which never appeared on his or my machine. If anybody did see that earlier note, maybe you should let the moderator know. Chris Van Wyk