BOOK REVIEW

A pope and his time

The life and papacy of John Paul II, by a thorough, thoroughgoing advocate

By Paul Baumann, 10/10/1999

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s Ecclesiastes might put it, of the making of many books about the pope there is no end. Weighing in at 3 1/2 pounds, nearly 1,000 pages, and half a million words, there is nearly no end to George Weigel's monumental homage to John Paul II. Even those who hold a very high opinion of this pope should limber up before lifting this corpulent opus.

"Witness to Hope" is more encyclopedia than biography, more an exhaustive defense of the pope's often contested views than an in-depth psychological portrait. This discursive approach is taken, Weigel argues, because Karol Wojtyla "is a man of faith, whose faith is who he is." There is much truth in that claim. Still, readers may find the virtual absence of such mundane human motivations as ambition, anger, or jealousy a bit too good to be true. In most ordinary mortals strengths and flaws are inextricably linked. Weigel's John Paul goes from strength to strength with hardly a misstep.

But if you want to know whom Wojtyla saw, what he said, and how they reacted to him -- during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Second Vatican Council (1962-'65), the 1987 papal visit to Chile (or to Nicaragua in '83, Zambia in '89, Paris in '96, ad infinitum) -- this book is an impressive resource. Weigel is equally thorough, if sometimes tendentious, in his treatment of the pope's many writings and official pronouncements. John Paul's fraught dealings with the Orthodox churches, his unprecedented outreach to Judaism, the shrewd way in which this Polish pope has circumvented the sclerotic Roman Curia, and the evangelical vision he brings to the papacy are all astutely analyzed.

No one could dispute that the charismatic, outspoken, and intellectually formidable John Paul has revolutionized the papal office. Unfortunately, even as a chronicle of historical fact and theological dispute, "Witness to Hope" moves at a millennial pace and bogs down in numbing detail. The book as a whole is so unwieldy, so determined to be comprehensive in its contestation of other perspectives and other versions of events, that reading it is like trying to make headway against gale-force winds. Only the most determined readers will be left standing at the end.

Weigel is well known in Roman Catholic intellectual circles for his work on just-war theory, the relation of religion to politics, and his pointed criticism of church reformers and bureaucrats. He is also a neoconservative polemicist in the American "culture wars." Not surprisingly, there is a marked emphasis in "Witness to Hope" on the role of a "vibrant public moral culture, capable of disciplining and directing the tremendous human energies set loose by freedom." In other words, religion and morality are, Weigel argues, essential aspects of democratic politics.

In his shorter writing Weigel usually combines rhetorical verve and a strong line of argument with a sure command of his subject. All those strengths are present in "Witness To Hope." He can be eloquent, for example, in skewering fashionable postmodern ideas about morality, the unreliability of reason, and the meaning of life when compared with John Paul's philosophically informed Christian humanism. History, Weigel forcefully asserts, is not "just one damn thing after another," as modern cynics mordantly claim. History has an author and a destination. In John Paul's words, "Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is every human life." That is the hope to which the pope bears witness. By contrast, the "false humanisms" of the modern world -- whether it be Marxism's denial of God or the current celebration of freedom divorced from moral truth -- lead not only to despair, but to murder.

In this context, Weigel presents a series of ambitious arguments about John Paul's answer to the "crisis of modernity." In broad terms, that crisis is the threat to the sanctity of life and to human dignity posed by the refusal to acknowledge the moral and transcendent nature of the human person. John Paul's crucial role in the collapse of Soviet communism is offered as a paradigm for how to understand this ongoing crisis. "By inspiring the revolution of conscience that made possible the nonviolent Revolution of 1989 against Marxism-Leninism," Weigel writes, "he challenged broadly accepted understandings of the dynamics of history. History, he helped demonstrate, is driven by culture, and at the heart of culture is cult, or religion." No tyranny that denies man's relation to God can last; no democratic society that does the same will remain free for long.

Yet even if one is sympathetic to such a view of human affairs, it is hard to accept the weight Weigel accords culture. The extent to which culture, economics, and politics overlap is not sufficiently acknowledged. A "vibrant moral public culture," for example, will be as concerned about how material abundance is allocated as it is about explicit violence and sex. Weigel's treatment of philosophical questions can also be misleading. If modern philosophers are more doubtful than the pope about our ability to justify rationally claims about morality, they are not quite the nihilists Weigel portrays. It is the pope's moral certainty, not the need for morality, that modern philosophy questions.

"Witness to Hope" is driven by two plausible convictions. The first is a heartfelt belief that John Paul is a pivotal -- indeed, providential -- figure in the history of the world as well as the church. The second is the contention that John Paul's intellectual acuity, moral sanctity, and evangelical style are beyond serious question. But not even a saint's life is immune from error, let alone sin. Again and again, Weigel avoids presenting the best arguments of the pope's most respectful critics. Consequently, the more the pope's image is burnished, the less real it becomes. That's too bad, because I suspect that John Paul is nearly as remarkable, if not quite as infallible, as "Witness to Hope" claims.

Paul Baumann is the executive editor of Commonweal magazine.

This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 10/10/1999.
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