These two books reproduce material which originally appeared in The Irish Times during the Christian jubilee year. The intention, as Patsy McGarry writes in his introduction to The Irish Times Book of Jesus Reports, was "to mark the year 2000 in The Irish Times in a particularly Christian way". In an Ireland grown in some ways more secular and with newspaper space at a premium, it was a brave and commendable decision by the editor to back his religious affairs correspondent's initiative and publish the items now appearing in book form.
Christianity is a short work, in two parts - a series of essays by twelve different hands on what might very loosely be described as "aspects of Christianity", followed by a brief history of Christianity by Patrick Comerford, himself both an Irish Times journalist and a priest of the Church of Ireland. The essays, although well-written or certainly well-edited, are of uneven quality and the selection and juxtaposition of items can only be described as eccentric. Some seem too narrow in focus or too polemical in tone, or both, to merit inclusion in such a small book, given the ground it was setting out to cover. But some are outstanding. Three in particular stood out for this reviewer and made the enterprise worthwhile.
Hans Kⁿng, trailing his coat only a very little, contributes a beautifully lucid account of the essential continuity between the beginnings of Christianity and the faith which can still be found alive and well in today's world. The book fittingly opens with this. Having allowed that "at first sight, Christianity today seems very different from the beliefs and practices of Jesus of Nazareth and His first followers two thousand years ago", a sentiment it is superficially easy to share, Kⁿng insists that " . . . where Christianity really goes by its Christ and allows Him to give it strength, it can offer a spiritual home, a place of faith, hope and love", showing that "supreme values, unconditional norms, deepest motivations and highest ideals can be lived out, indeed that from the depths of belief in Christ suffering and guilt, despair and anxiety can also be overcome". This is a fine piece.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes movingly about forgiveness, based on the authority of what happened in post-apartheid South Africa, a work of reconciliation in which he was so intimately involved himself. "Forgiving and being reconciled", he writes, "are not about pretending that things are other than they are . . . True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the degradation - the truth. It may even make things worse. But in the end it is worthwhile. Because in the end there is real healing from having dealt with a real situation."
When he visited the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in 1989, which he found "shattering", he had the courage to say to his hosts what "the Lord whom I served and who was Himself a Jew, would have asked, 'But what about forgiveness?'". This caused strong reactions, but they did not hesitate to ask him back. He was bearing witness to what lies at the very heart of authentic Christianity.
Reflecting on the call of the gospel nearer home, the former Presbyterian moderator Dr Trevor Morrow makes an impassioned plea for a change of heart. Having highlighted the "painful cauldron of ethnic nationalism, religious piety and cynical secularism" into which Jesus came and the shockingly radical nature of the ministry on which he embarked in this setting, he writes: "The gospel can only be heard in the 21st century if we realise that we in Ireland, North and South, have got it entirely wrong. Here on this island, our expectations, our agenda, the paradigm within which we think and act, the attitudes and fears and prejudices that we have imbibed with our mother's milk, in fact all those things that have fed and nourished an ethnic and political tribalism, of these we must repent if we are to believe and live and share in the good news of the kingdom".
The failure to preserve unity is one of the Leitmotiven of Patrick Comerford's historical essay, which constitutes a third of the book. It is a noble, if inevitably unsuccessful effort, to be at once in some way adequately comprehensive and ecumenically inclusive in so small a compass. If there is a theme in the book as a whole - and this is an evident preoccupation of Patsy McGarry's journalism - it is the need for religions and Christian denominations to work closely together.
The interesting contributions of Dr Racelle Weiman, director of the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education at Hebrew Union College, and the principal of the Muslim College in London, Dr Zaki Badawi, both point, more or less explicitly, in this direction. Both pieces possess added resonance in the light of the events of September 11th and the need felt with special urgency since then for authentic believers everywhere to show the world that religion is part of the solution, not the source of the problem.
The idea of covering the short public life of Jesus through reworking parts of the gospel story as a series of press-reports, thus making him more accessible to a relatively uninformed or uncommitted readership, has undoubted merit. This is what Patsy McGarry undertakes in The Irish Times Book of Jesus Reports. It is written in an admirably easy, colloquial style. There is humour and piquant self-mockery in making the religious affairs correspondent of The Palestine Times bear the name of Mr Judas Iscariot. The local tabloid is called The Moon, "a pale reflection of the truth". In several places the author exhibits the true story-teller's ingenuity in recombining to excellent effect elements scattered in different places in the gospels or placing them in a new, illuminating context. There are times - notably the final chapters on the death of Jesus - when readers may experience a surge of excited recognition, feeling that they are seeing events as they must actually have been, for the very first time. This is no mean achievement.
There are, however, some reservations. Apart from the limitations imposed by the format chosen, ingenious as it is, the book's colloquial style regularly risks descent into bathos. This is more than a matter of aesthetics or good taste - it has serious theological implications.
Thus, when, for example, Patsy McGarry offers: "I don't deserve this. You are far too good to the likes of me", as a translation for Peter's awestruck words following the miraculous draught of fishes: "Leave me, Lord. I am a sinful man" (Luke 5,8), the key concept of "sin" has been lost. Indeed, it tends to be missing from the book as a whole, crucially weakening Christ's message of salvation. Again, the dialogue of Jesus with Nathanael is collapsed into banality. "Don't be surprised at this. It's nothing. Ye'll see far greater things I tell you" preserves no echo of Jacob's dream in Genesis 28, with its connotations of theophany, as contained in John 1. Patsy McGarry's genre, it is true, cannot easily accommodate this kind of deeper perspective. But, without it, precious layers of meaning, perhaps even the whole point of the gospels and Christian revelation, are in danger of disappearing. In the same way, to translate the words of Peter to Jesus in John 6,68 about "the message of eternal life" as "the words that will live forever" makes them sound like a pop-song jingle or an inspirational greeting-card, far removed from Peter's existential concerns and the ultimate seriousness of the gospel.
At last month's World Synod of Bishops in Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger told his colleagues: "Only if we become contemporary with Christ and the fire is kindled in us, will the Gospel proclaimed touch the hearts of our contemporaries". It is only fair to say that, reservations notwithstanding, there are certainly ways in which this book can help its readers to experience something of the immediacy and relevance of Jesus, especially if it leads them back to the gospels, which are its frequently acknowledged source.
Father Bruce Bradley SJ is director of communications for the Archdiocese of Dublin