Hollywood versus reality

Aw geeze! I just saw the trailer for "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. I'm honestly astonished that it appears to be even more anti-Catholic than "The DaVinci Code" was. You hear the words "the truth" thrown around in the trailer alot, which is so ironic given the flimsy plots of all of Dan Brown's books.

It looks like it will present itself as some sort of heroic movie pushing the question of science versus religion driving the two things into a strict either/or situation rather than seeing their compatibility.

The plot of the story is just completely absurd. The whole irony is that people will get pulled into the whole "religion versus science" debate and have doubts about religion, yet will fail to miss all the poor science and non sequitur moments in the actual plot of the book.

This will be the new controversial film of the year because you can tell the studio is going to hype this with all the advertising they can. Of course the other irony is that the movie will try to tell people not to have blind faith regarding religion, but obviously if they are going to see the movie, they will have proven that they have blind faith about the advertising. Sadly, this film will be a blockbuster, mainly because of the advertising, not because of the content. Don't believe me, just look at what happened with "The DaVinci Code." The media and controversy surrounding it made it a blockbuster, but the critics and most moviegoers said the movie was lame. I'm sure this time the studios have hired actual writers to clean the script up. And people say that those who follow religion are just dumb sheep. Ugh.

I would say that this is the perfect time for the Church to emphasize more the compatibility of scienc and religion, as it always has.

For instance, do you know where the theory of the Big Bang came from? A Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre.

Hopefully Amy Welborn is writing a new book as we speak. LOL.

RS

Classical lesiure reading

Well, I've been looking for some lesiure reading material, and finally last night, on a whim I went to the bookstore. I finally just decided to go look at the classics and they had a nice little selection of classics with a buy 2 get 1 free offer. So, I ended up getting "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas (yeah, those "little" books, LOL). All in all, getting those three for under $20 isn't too bad.
I'm starting with "Don Quixote."


Amusing so far, although I haven't read but the first few chapters.

RS

Part of Loome bookstores closing

Well, it's good news/bad news.

The good news is that Loome Theological Booksellers will remain open.

However, the bad news (or maybe good news if you live in Minnesota) is that Loome Antiquarian Booksellers is closing.

Here's the ad I just received by email (pretty funny actually).



RS

Yet another book.

My reading list is a mess. I have an odd reading habit of reading about 5 or 6 books at once. This usually means it takes me forever to read a book all the way through.

Anyway, I just started reading a rather interesting book mentioned at least a few times over at The New Liturgical Movement. The book was written in 2003 and is available in pdf format courtesy of Church Music Association of America at the following link:

The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform by Laszlo Dobszay.

I've gotten through the first three chapters (about 45 pages) and it is pretty interesting. From the title you can see that he analyzes the reform of the liturgy following Vatican II. It is a very honest critique, and he doesn't hold back any punches. However, I really like his approach to the book, and I think it gives a proper outlook to the liturgy:

"The critical approach to the "Bugnini Liturgy" presented here reflects neither disobedience toward higher authority nor a practical opposition to liturgical regulations. In everyday life, I am ready to accomodate myself to the currently valid liturgical prescriptions even though as an expert dealing with the liturgy, I consider them wrong or unsuccessful in many respects. Thus, my remarks are made in a spirit of service and not of contestation."

Dobszay's approach appears to be exactly the same attitude that Cardinal Ratzinger has in "Spirit of the Liturgy" ie an honest critique of the liturgy yet remaining faithful to the current liturgical laws. (It shouldn't be any suprise that he dedicated the book to Cardinal Ratzinger.)

Dobszay also uses the same "hermenutic of continuity" as Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI when examining the current liturgy, looking at the new Mass not just vis-a-vis the Tridentine reform, but with the whole liturgical tradition of the Roman rite. And he is not scared to note that even in the Tridentine reform some things were not done in an ideal way.

It's a good and suprisingly engrossing read so far, and I hope to finish it. Supposedly it is going to be republished in book form soon. I'd really like to buy a copy when that happens.

UPDATE - The book is now available from CMAA at this site (at the bottom of the page):

Catholic Music Association of America Books

RS