(Re)reading, Reception, and Rhetoric: Approaches to Roman Catholic Modernism by C.J.T. Talar (review)

BOOK REVIEWS647 The Friendship of Christ, Confessions of a Convert, and Paradoxes of Christianity . As a preacher he drew enormous crowds. Though he usually spoke with a slight stammer in ordinary conversation, in the pulpit he was always smooth, forceful, eloquent, convincing, moving. Many who were mesmerized by his sermons claimed he was the best preacher they had ever heard proclaim the Gospel. His reputation was such that wherever he spoke he packed the churches. Despite his public acclaim and literary successes, like other notable individuals , he had his share of problems; but he tried to surmount them with his work as a spiritual adviser to an ever-increasing number of penitents, converts, and potential converts. To all who came within his orbit he offered comfort and encouragement . Always the priest that Pius X thought Hugh would be, he did his utmost to present Divine Truths in all he did. Wise enough to avoid ecclesiastical politics and personalities, he nevertheless occasionally stumbled into, as he put it, "blazing indiscretions." Despite strong opposition from Cardinal Bourne, and only through the persistent efforts of friends in Rome,was he made a Papal Chamberlain to Pius X. Janet Grayson's account of Benson's life and works is straightforward and objective . Her biography is not "a puff-piece," a call for a Benson revival, or an attempt to send readers back to his books. One question, however, lingers: were his original readers mistaken about the quality of his books? Evelyn Waugh did not think so, and once commented that Benson was an almost faultless novelist. Most of his books are now out of print; indeed, Books in Print (1997-98) lists only four of his works that are currently available. Possibly some enterprising publisher will reissue his By What Authority'*, Come Rack! Come Rope!, The King'sAchievement, The Queen's Tragedy, or one—or even a few—of his other exciting works of historical fiction. Benson's spiritual influence is, of course, extremely difficult to measure. That at one time he moved young intellectuals, not only in Britain and America but in France as well, toward matters spiritual can be demonstrated. Three of his French devotees come quickly to mind—Jacques and Raissa Maritain and Teilhard de Chardin. G.A. Cevasco St.John's University, New York (Re)reading, Reception, and Rhetoric: Approaches to Roman Catholic Modernism . By C. J. T Talar. [American University Studies, Series VTJ: Theology and Religion,Vol. 206.] (NewYork: Peter Lang. 1999. Pp. xü, 216. $44.95.) Not that an international competition is afoot, but last summer in Rome, three German colleagues told me that, while interest in Roman Catholic Modernism 648BOOK REVIEWS is growing in Germany, their scholarship lags fifteen years behind the States'. The relatively advanced state of Modernist research in the United States is due in no small measure to the work of C.J. T. Talar,who consistently pushes the historiographical envelope with relatively new applications of sociological and literary analyses. Doubly doctored in sociology and theology, Talar is uniquely qualified for his project. This latest work emerged developmentally from his dissertation on "A Sociological Reading of the Modernist Crisis" (1979); from his first book, Metaphor and Modernist: The Polarization of Alfred Loisy and His Neo-Thomist Critics (1987); and from a score of more recent articles and papers. Five essays, flanked by a brief introduction and summary conclusion, are cleverly linked by the three R's of the book's title. Talar's overall interest lies in exploring the dynamics of interaction between texts and readers. Thus he uses reception and literary theory to explore not only what a text means but how it means, thereby wunrinating why readers react to texts as they do. His first essay argues that Loisy's autobiographical/ecclesiastical context led him to employ a literary strategy in L'Évangile et l'église that ultimately undermined his purpose. Loisy's felt need to insinuate some of his views rather than state them openly resulted in a constantly shifting viewpoint, as, while overtly challenging Harnack's Das Wesen des Christentums, he covertly challenged the Catholic Church's stance on the immutability of dogma and proof-texting exegetical tradition. The result...