Gary Wills?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SonofMonica
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

SonofMonica

Guest
I’ve read “What Jesus Meant” by Gary Wills, who also wrote “Why I am Catholic”, “What Paul Meant” and most recently, “What the Gospels Meant.”

I am wondering if anyone knows anything about his orthodoxy and whether I ought to be careful in digesting what he writes.

Thanks.
 
Yes, Gary Wills’ judgments on Catholicism cannot be said to be orthodox interpretations of the Faith by any stretch of the imagination.

He started out his career, ironically enough, under the tutelage of the late Catholic Conservative William F. Buckley at National Review. Bill Buckley apparently found him quite the bright young student whose latin was better than his and Bill Buckley gave him a gig and recognition.

Thing is, as time progressed, Gary Wills drew further and further away from Buckley’s conservative catholicism and soon left National Review. By then, however, he had made quite the name for himself and was soon writing many historical bestsellers.

He writes quite often for the progressive New York Review of Books where he has been quite scathing on the recent sex scandals within the Church and I believe he disagrees with the Church’s stance on homosexuality and other things. On other matters in Catholic doctrine however he toes the party line at times.

Not sure if this helps, but if you have already read his aforementioned books you are way ahead of me in understanding his faith, which I have only gleaned from his many articles.

God Bless.
 
I bought “Why I am Catholic” because it looked like something I would like, but I didn’t even make it past the introduction. His writing condones people being cafeteria Catholics and supports people supporting female priests, married priests, and contraceptives. And I got all that just from the introduction.
 
KyivAndrew said:
Yes, Gary Wills’ judgments on Catholicism cannot be said to be orthodox interpretations of the Faith by any stretch of the imagination.

He started out his career, ironically enough, under the tutelage of the late Catholic Conservative William F. Buckley at National Review. Bill Buckley apparently found him quite the bright young student whose latin was better than his and Bill Buckley gave him a gig and recognition.

Thing is, as time progressed, Gary Wills drew further and further away from Buckley’s conservative catholicism and soon left National Review. By then, however, he had made quite the name for himself and was soon writing many historical bestsellers.

He writes quite often for the progressive New York Review of Books where he has been quite scathing on the recent sex scandals within the Church and I believe he disagrees with the Church’s stance on homosexuality and other things. On other matters in Catholic doctrine however he toes the party line at times.

Not sure if this helps, but if you have already read his aforementioned books you are way ahead of me in understanding his faith, which I have only gleaned from his many articles.

God Bless.
Click to expand...
No, I only read “What Jesus Meant” a long time ago (before understanding Catholic doctrine and not knowing any better), but now that I hear this, I’m probably going to throw “What the Gospels Meant” in the trash can. Thanks for the heads up. It’s a shame one can’t depend on a “Catholic” writer these days. I figured if not even Scott Hahn has an imprimatur on his book, it must not be that important, but apparently it is…
 
SonofMonica said:
I’ve read “What Jesus Meant” by Gary Wills, who also wrote “Why I am Catholic”, “What Paul Meant” and most recently, “What the Gospels Meant.”

I am wondering if anyone knows anything about his orthodoxy and whether I ought to be careful in digesting what he writes.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
He is not orthodox in his views of the Catholic Church or what it means to be a Catholic.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top