Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life

One of the more outspoken - and sensible - Bishops in the U.S. today is Charles Chaput, the Capuchin Francisican Archbishop of Denver. As a New Yorker, I can only hope that when Cardinal Egan retires from the Archdiocese, the Pope will move Chaput to New York. In any event Archbishop Chaput has a timely and excellent book, with the sub-title "Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political life". It's timely, of course, because we are now in the political season, and the controversy continues about the role of religious belief and practice in the public arena. And it is excellent, as Chaput lays out an approach for religious people in general and Catholics in particular, to weigh in on the great issues of the day. The book is a quick read, at 235 pages and 12 chapters. Each chapter is peppered with historic examples and backed up by biblical quotes and church teachings. Here are some examples: chapter three titled "Why We're Here" starts with a brief analysis of Victor Frankl's classic book "Man's Search for Meaning" and then discusses the role of the Church and Catholic laity in bringing Catholic values into the arena of public ideas. Chapter seven is entitled "What Went Wrong" and offers 21 pages about the reforms and problems which arose from Vatican II, with Chaput feeling that some reforms did not go far enough and others were hijacked by people with their own agenda. Chapter nine is entitled "A Man for All Seasons" as Chaput discusses the jurist and advisor to Henry the VIIIth, St. Thomas More. in 19 pages he discusses More, brings in President Kennedy, and then analyzes two relatively contemporary Catholic governors, Mario Cuomo and Robert Casey (I will leave it to your imagination as to who Chaput thinks come closest to emulating More...). So anyone interested in the confluence of religion, politics, and contemporary issues will profit from this book. And it will be very useful for anyone in a variety of lay ministerial positions, and clergy, both Catholic and non-Catholic, as a source for homiletic material. A brief but comprehensive work.

Matters of faith and politics have often been decried as separate with many politicians seeking to gain power either cultivating men and women of faith or disparaging them as "fanatics", whose convictions should be relegated to the Sunday pew and not lived in everyday life and society in general. As political parties and candidates pander to voter interests, they seem compelled to tell persons of faith that their way is the best way and the only way -- just vote for them and you will have more services, lower taxes, greater freedom, more regulation, abundant entitlements, and a bright shining future. They encourage people to vote their conscience (on matters upon which they agree) and to keep their opinions to themselves (when their beliefs differ from the political elite or that blessed sacred cow -- the secular media). With respect to religion, Christians and Catholics in particular are often told to separate their beliefs and their faith from politics, as if our beliefs can somehow be compartmentalized and restricted to an hour each Saturday or Sunday. To advance their particular agenda, it is as if religion has no place in American society. Thus, for many in this country, a national religion has already been established -- POLITICS. Charles J. Chaput, OFM Capuchin, is the Archbishop of Denver. Of Canadian and Native American ancestry, he is noted as a conservative and a fierce defender of the Catholic Faith. In RENDER UNTO CAESAR, he reminds American Catholics that they cannot be individuals who remain isolated in their faith. Faithful Citizenship demands that they form their consciences in accordance with the truth in order to make sound moral choices in public life as well as private worship. He does so while emphasizing the American principles of freedom of religion, and a respect for each person to freely exercise their beliefs in all matters of daily life. Archbishop Chaput writes clearly and expressively. He reminds us that character is formed from faith and belief in God as well as from the principles upon which this nation was founded. To people of faith, he reminds them that they have an obligation to speak out and participate in the marketplace of ideas and opinions. He is a strident voice for not just Catholics (for which this book has been written), but rather for all Americans. To live with character and integrity, all Catholics (and all men and women of good will) are obliged to speak out based upon the principles of properly formed conscience and integrity.

An excellent resource for faithful Catholic voters during this election year and for others who want to truly understand them. Great summary of Vatican II and its aftermath, especially in relation to the American political scene and the beliefs of American Catholics. Great discussion of the differences between toleration, pluralism and religious conviction! Loaded with useful references for further reading in sociology, theology and political theory. I've bookmarked at least 30 paragraphs and quotations for further reading and preaching.

One of the most unfortunate consequences of both the US tradition of church/state separation and the evangelical protestant insistence that religion is primarily what goes on between the individual and God is the privatization of faith. The good Christian, so this perspective has it, compartmentalizes his or her faith, keeping it a personal, private affair. Issues of public policy and morality are best left to the secular powers and principalities.* In his excellent Render Unto Caesar, Archbishop Charles Chaput invites Christian readers (and especially Roman Catholic ones) to rethink this position. The heart of Chaput's thesis is nicely expressed toward the end of the book. Drawing upon the long tradition of Catholic social teachings, Chaput argues that the Church as an institution and the individual Christian as a follower of Christ have the obligation to speak truth to power. This doesn't mean that he endorses either a theocracy or a government controlled by Christians. It does mean that the Church and her members live up to their prophetic calling as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace. As Chaput writes toward the end of his book, "The Church claims no right to dominate the secular realm. But she has every right - in fact an obligation - to engage secular authority and to challenge those wielding it to live the demands of justice. In this sense, the Catholic Church cannot stay, has never stayed, and never will stay 'out of politics.' Politics involves the exercise of power. The use of power has moral content and human consequences. And the well-being and destiny of the human person is very much the concern, and the special competence, of the Christian community" (pp. 217-18). In order to maintain its prophetic edge, however, the Church must walk a tightrope, resisting isolating itself from mainstream culture in the search for "purity" on the one hand, and allowing itself to be absorbed by mainstream culture in the search for "relevance" on the other. Perhaps the most interesting sections of Chaput's book are his discussions of how to navigate through these two possibilities. An exciting, reasonably argued, and prophetic book. Highly recommended. ____________ * Obviously evangelical Protestants since the inception of the Moral Majority have gotten involved in politics, thus stretching their traditional "private relationship with Jesus" position. But their manner of bringing religion to politics tends not to follow in the liberal tradition of Catholic social teachings from Leo XIII to the documents of Vatican II.

I read this overnight and couldn't put it down. Chaput has an easy, engaging writing style, but don't let that fool you. He has a deep grasp of history and a forceful message about the role of Catholic faith in shaping and humanizing the public square. He deals with all the tough issues, but this is not primarily a book about abortion or Communion wars or which political party is good or bad. It's much richer and more challenging than than that. This is simply the best book I've read about the American Catholic political vocation. If you want to know what the words "American and Catholic" really mean, read this book.