(This is the second of a two-part interview. Part one was posted on Tuesday.)
After being raised in a Fundamentalist home, Carl Olson entered the Catholic Church in 1997 and has since became one of its shining lights.
He’s written numerous articles and books including Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”? (Ignatius Press, 2003) and The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius Press, 2004).
He’s also the new editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight, an online magazine featuring essays, interviews, reviews and news related to the Catholic Church and the work of Ignatius Press.
In this, the second part of our two-part interview, Carl and I chat more about (what else?) books–new books, old books, favorite books, and more.
Q: At the Ignatius Insight Scoop blog, you cover theology, philosophy, and culture. However you also promote new books from Ignatius Press. What titles are you most excited about right now?
I am always excited about new books by Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, even when they are collection of older works, as is the new volume, Fundamental Speeches From Five Decades.
I first began reading Ratzinger when I was still an Evangelical Protestant, and I’ve never tired of his work. Not even close. He is such a profound thinker, and one who writes with remarkable clarity and detail—and charity. Every time I read more of his work, I am amazed this great theologian and man is regularly portrayed as “reactive” or “fearful” or incapable of interacting with ideas and beliefs contrary to his own. Those criticisms are not only unserious, they are simply slanderous.
In addition to the afore-mentioned work, don’t miss the new collection of general audiences, Holy Men and Women Of the Middle Ages and Beyond, which discusses saints such as Francis, Dominic, Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and many more.
Mary Eberstadt’s new book, Adam and Eve After the Pill, is an excellent and insightful guide to the chaos caused by the sexual revolution. Saints Are Not Sad: Short Biographies of Joyful Saints, edited by the great Frank Sheed, originally published by Sheed and Ward in 1949, is a wonderful introduction to a host of saints, written by luminaries including Belloc and Chesterton.
I’m also really looking forward to these two books: The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language, by Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, and Church in Crisis: The Enlightenment and Its Impact upon Today’s Church by Martin R. Tripole, S.J. Fr. Lang has proven to be an outstanding scholar of matters liturgical (see his book, Turning Towards the Lord, for example). I don’t know much at all about Fr. Tripole’s book, but it sounds fascinating.
Finally, I encourage readers to take a look at the new (and older, for that matter) volumes being published in the Ignatius Critical Editions series.
The spring 2012 titles include A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, Dracula by Stoker, Loss and Gain by Newman, The Red Badge of Courage by Crane, and The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.
The prices on these are hard to beat. For example, the 432-page edition of Newman’s novel, with critical essays and notes, costs less than $10.00 online. And with that, I set aside my shameless salesman’s cap for the moment.
Q: Imagine the world has collapsed into an Orwellian dystopia replete with book burnings. You can only save five titles to pass on to your children—what do you select and why?
If possible, I would have a copy of a book titled How to Survive and Thrive After the World Has Collapsed Into an Orwellian Dystopia: Ten Essential Strategies for Success and Comfort in a Post-Apocalyptic Age (with bonus DVD, water bottle, and freeze-dried meals).
Other than that, can I choose collected works? How about the Harvard Great Books set? No?
Actually, I like this question. It makes me realize how superfluous all of those Louis L’Amour novels are. My answers here are similar to those I gave Brad Birzer of The Imaginative Conservative when he asked for a list of “Books That Makes Us Human.” Also, I’m going to assume that my pastor survived and managed to keep intact all of his necessary missals and liturgical texts. When the world goes up in flames, I can only be counted on to do so much.
1. The Bible. A no-brainer in terms of the Big Picture, but it is the book whose words I’ve heard or read, in one way or another, nearly every day of my life. It is also the book of Western Civilization, no matter how ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented it is in our day. Oh, and it is the inspired Word of God. So it has a lot going for it.
2. Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas. If possible, I’d take the entire works of Aquinas. But the Summa would provide plenty of food for thought—about both temporal and eternal questions—while scrounging for physical food in the ruins of the local Safeway.
3. The Divine Comedy by Dante. I’m tempted to go with the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare, but while I’ve read many of them, I’ve still only read a criminally small amount of Dante. What better to do, then, while taking an occasional break from rebuilding the world out of ashes and shards of concrete?
4. The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton. What? That’s cheating? Hmmm. I would need some Chesterton, so probably The Everlasting Man, if push came to dystopic shove.
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. No, wait. Maybe War and Peace by Tolstoy. Hold on. Perhaps Crime and Punishment? I’ve not read any of those great Russian novels, so why not while civilization unravels? Then again, if I’m thinking of my kids, I’m inclined toward one of the great spiritual classics by St. John of the Cross, or St. Teresa of Avila, or St. Francis de Sales. Nothing by Deepak Chopra, however—some things are better spurned, if not burned, as life is short.
For more from Carl Olson, be sure to follow his Ignatius Insight blog and check out his personal website.
And if you liked this discussion, check out my other interviews with people like Fr. Robert Barron, Christopher West, Archbishop Chaput, Marc Barnes, and more. Also, be sure you don’t miss future interviews by subscribing to The Thin Veil via feed reader or email.
Which new books are you most excited about?