Things Left Undone: The DNF Files

One of my goals is to have a whole year in which I finished every book I started. This is not the year. Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits by Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi, is my first DNF. We parted company at the 100-page mark.

Although I was brought up Protestant, I've had a fascination with the Roman Catholic church for almost as long as I can remember. I've also been intrigued by the Jesuits who are legendary for their work as missionaries and educators. My Catholic acquaintances over the years have assured me that Jesuits are the toughest and the most brilliant of all the orders. When I read that the pope issued an order to shut the society down in the 1700s, (an edict which lasted about 40 years) that seemed to add to their badass patina. When I found Passionate Uncertainty at my library, I was eager to learn more. That's not this book's job, however.


Passionate Uncertainty is a 2002 sociological study of the American Jesuits AKA The Society of Jesus and it is much dryer and more academic in tone than I had expected from the title. I was expecting a stronger narrative style and a more thorough rendering of the history of the order. Instead, it's more of an inquiry into why the number of Jesuits has been dropping with great velocity even before Vatican II (1962-65) and what (if anything) can be done to reverse the trend.

Many Jesuits -- those who have stayed in the monastic life and those who decided to leave -- are quoted in the book, but it is nearly anonymously (they are identified by age and sometimes by career if they no longer have the religious vocation) and the quotes are used to bolster the assertions of the authors. The reader doesn't get to know any particular person's whole story. These men are data, but that's the type of book it is. This isn't what I expected, but then again, I am not the intended audience.

Flashback Friday! Voices Of Silence: Lives Of The Trappists Today

This 1991 book by photojournalist Frank Bianco had its beginnings during a retreat that Bianco made as he struggled with his faith and anger at God after his son's death in an automobile crash several years earlier. As he came to grips with his sorrow, he became close to the monks there at Gethsemani Abbey (where Thomas Merton lived many years ago) and was subsequently allowed to interview them, write about them and photograph them.

With writing as evocative as his camera, Bianco does a wonderful job of showing the day-to-day life of contemplatives. A large part of the book involves interviews with several different monks who are at critical stages in their spiritual development, i.e., will they leave the monastery or stay? Bianco also devotes a great deal of space to discussion of the psychological sea-change that occurs as a monk spends more and more time in the monastery.

Voices Of Silence is a compelling read for anyone interested in the struggles involved in the ongoing search for both God and self-awareness. Even non-believers will be moved by the complex and honest portraits of the men who have chosen this unconventional life.