Garry Wills

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I’m interested in any comments, pro or con, regarding Garry Wills’ scholarship, which may be represented in three of his books that have sat on my bookshelf for some time but I have not yet seriously read: Why Priests? – A Failed Tradition; What Jesus Meant; What Paul Meant.**

It is relatively easy to write and sound “scholarly”; thus, stimulating minds in POP culture. I might consider a book filled with personal interpretation of Scripture, mixed with citations of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew words, and the opinions of biblical scholars which “proves” that Jesus and Mary of Magdala have been living on Urainus for the past 2,000 years – complete nonsense, but “intellectually stimulating” as the Catholic Explorer says about Wills’ work.

Can I take Garry Wills to be a serious and scholarly read?
 
seeker44 said:
I’m interested in any comments, pro or con, regarding Garry Wills’ scholarship, which may be represented in three of his books that have sat on my bookshelf for some time but I have not yet seriously read: Why Priests? – A Failed Tradition; What Jesus Meant; What Paul Meant.**

It is relatively easy to write and sound “scholarly”; thus, stimulating minds in POP culture. I might consider a book filled with personal interpretation of Scripture, mixed with citations of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew words, and the opinions of biblical scholars which “proves” that Jesus and Mary of Magdala have been living on Urainus for the past 2,000 years – complete nonsense, but “intellectually stimulating” as the Catholic Explorer says about Wills’ work.

Can I take Garry Wills to be a serious and scholarly read?
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These may help you make that determination:

catholic.com/blog/karl-keating/garry-wills-not-as-smart-as-stephen-colbert

catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm?id=3874&repos=6&subrepos=4&searchid=1048159
 
Joe_5859 said:
From the first article: “He has rarely written a bad sentence or a good book.”

That’s a very clever turn of phrase that pretty much sums it up.
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He is a historian. I think he won the Pulitzer for “Lincoln at Gettysburg”, no?

After the Lincoln book, I lunged at his books Why I am a Catholic, What Jesus Meant, What Paul Meant (or words to that effect) - left me cold to luke-warm.
 
Garry Wills is primarily an opinion columnist – ie, a journalist. So, like most opinion columnists, his job is to have an convincing-sounding or amusing opinion on all sorts of subjects upon which he is not an expert.

His academic credentials are: a BA in Philosophy, an MA in Philosophy, and a PhD in Classics. He did teach history at Johns Hopkins and at Northwestern, but I’m not sure why they hired him, other than from his writing about history. So yes, he’s a historian in that he has written popular history works and has taught history. But he’s never majored in history or gotten any degrees in history.

I’m sure he’s a very pleasant person, but I’ve never read anything by him that seemed to be closely argued or BS-free. There are usually huge holes in his logic. Maybe his earlier work was better, but I can’t say that I’m much interested in finding out.

So basically, I wouldn’t take him too seriously as a scholarly guide. OTOH, you might be able to find something useful in his work. As always, check the footnotes and read them in context, because people make mistakes; and make sure you read other works by other people upon a subject so you’ll get a rounded view.

As a Catholic, Wills has become increasingly unorthodox ever since rejecting the Church’s teaching authority back in 1961. (For conservative reasons then, for liberal reasons now.) His latest book denies the Real Presence, among other things.

Father Barron has an analysis of the Why Priests book. He sees Wills as just another guy trying to get rid of books of the Bible and Church doctrines, because he’s angry at God and his past. I’m sure there’s more to it - there usually is - but yeah, Wills isn’t the guy to trust your soul to.

Wills actually ends his book by saying, “There is one God, and Jesus is one of his prophets…” So he’s not even a Christian in any wholehearted way, either.
 
He is one of many of his generation who seems to be bitter that his ideal for the Catholic Church, so prominent in the 70s, withered and died on the vine.
 
seeker44 said:
I’m interested in any comments, pro or con, regarding Garry Wills’ scholarship, which may be represented in three of his books that have sat on my bookshelf for some time but I have not yet seriously read: Why Priests? – A Failed Tradition; What Jesus Meant; What Paul Meant.**

It is relatively easy to write and sound “scholarly”; thus, stimulating minds in POP culture. I might consider a book filled with personal interpretation of Scripture, mixed with citations of Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew words, and the opinions of biblical scholars which “proves” that Jesus and Mary of Magdala have been living on Urainus for the past 2,000 years – complete nonsense, but “intellectually stimulating” as the Catholic Explorer says about Wills’ work.

Can I take Garry Wills to be a serious and scholarly read?
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His books on American history are well worth it. His books on the faith are as bad as any other books which have flourished in the last 150 to 200 years, where the authors are sure that they really understand what Jesus & Paul meant to say while all the martyrs, priests, confessors, and faithful in the interim were all just a bunch of confused bigots.

How many of these people really believe that they have a “prophetic” spirit when they have nothing but fat book contracts and applause from those who, as St. Peter warned would come in later times, wish to have their ears scratched.
 
Jaysuitical said:
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How many of these people really believe that they have a “prophetic” spirit when they have nothing but fat book contracts and applause from those who, as St. Peter warned would come in later times, wish to have their ears scratched.
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This is an excellent point! You can hardly be prophetic when Caesar and Herod agree with you.
 
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