Has anyone read Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly

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I was handed a copy by a parishoner AND by my parents. I was reluctant to read it, because I noticed an emphasis on “change”…and then felt compelled to read it so I could “refute” it. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. The ONLY thing I didn’t like was his recommendation to write one’s thougts (what God is speaking to you) during the Mass. But…that’s the only thing I took any issue with.

**I have an extra copy now if anyone needs one. 😉
 
tmichalski77 said:
I agree with KnightsofJesus on it having a good intent, but that it needs to be stopped. I’m a former Evangelical Calvinist / Baptist mutt that grew up reading books that use negativity and words that feel like we’re in a crisis to mask the reader from critically thinking about the message. Matthew Kelly is constantly ripping our modern culture apart like it’s a disease that needs to be eradicated.He is absolutely right! Look at the modern culture!!! And what he is saying is very Catholic, we are not of this world and our modern culture is very sick, the pope says this, the previous pope says this? Could you show an example of how MK is wrong here?🤷 Then without citing any references he makes wild accusations about our out of control sinful habits that are plunging us into despair… etc… and so on.Ummm this is called the human condition. He is also right on on this and it is quite Catholic. We are a fallen sinful people. He all but calls everyone in modern culture (except possibly a few thousand) lazy unholy people,I would agree with his percentages. Where do you live??? And can I move in? but then boldly steps in to offer us HIS VERSION of holiness, which is the Army motto “be all you can be” just like Michael Jordan and Bill Gates and Mother Teresa. Here I will agree with you.

Personally, I think what Matthew Kelly teaches Marthin Luther’s and John Calvin’s theologyNo no no no, at least Luther and Calvin were intelligent and articulate…:D. and he should be reviewed by our higher church leaders to ensure that we as a Church are not embracing heresy. Plus, shouldn’t we focus on the Sacraments as the pillars of our faith?? maybe Matthew Kelly should have said “disciplines” instead of pillars.

I’m newly converted to Catholicism mainly due to the deeply philosophical and rich theological foundation of our Church. If I would have read Matthew Kelly’s book on Catholicism, then I would have written Catholicism off as just another brow beating “christian denomination” that will create an imaginaryDefinately not imaginary!!! crisis about the state of humanity to motivate people to behave relative to the brow beater’s opinion (ie John Calvin himself).

I wouldn’t be writing this review if our Church leaders were not promoting this as the best representation of Catholicism and the shining light that will lead us into a new heavenly earth. I predict that this book will be completely forgotten in 2-3 years as it’s a fad (ie. Purpose Driven Life). This is nothing new.Here, you hit the nail on the head. It is theological kool aide.!!!👍
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I was confused by your impression of Kelly. I find him to be more along the lines of the Catholic version of the “health and wealth” Gospel, or as someone said earlier the Olseen thought. His delivery is transparent and a little offensive. But absolutely basic in content.
But I dont think he claims to be a “theologian” which is good because like I said there is little content that is deep there. He speaks to a broader even “non Catholic” audience that is searching for something. And that is fine. That is his niche. If you want my opinion of MK just watch the old saturday night live’s with Chris farley doing his motivational speaking IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER. In his latest book which I just read MK treats theology and the Church as a business and speaks of the “7 percent” Uuuhhhggg I just need more substance than a business coach for the CC.:rolleyes:
 
I find this debate interesting, I may have get this book (if it’s cheap) . so I can form
my own opinion.
 
After reading the reviews of this book, I think I’ve done the right thing by not reading it. I suffer with depression & anxiety as well as agoraphobia & Scrupulosity Addiction. From the sounds of it, this book would have made things worse for me. Glad I took the time to read this. Thank you to the person that started this thread.
 
I agree, we should emulate Jesus , I agree w/internet woman. good book but doesn’t really make me want to go to church more, I don’t idolize Jesus or the saints, I merely seek to emulate them and that means following Jesus’ and their example…But it was worth the read…inspiring and i am grateful to read something the author believes in so much. Now if only we could follow our passions as much as he does, that much that would have fantastic results in our life 🙂
 
I’ve read parts of it. It’s good! It doesn’t have to be read linearly, either.
 
i did read this book and liked it. i would recommend reading it.
 
Moore11 - thanks for your reply.

My point about his ripping apart our modern culture and why that bothers me so much is for a few reasons.
  1. Pointing out our modern culture as being the root of the problem presupposes (to me) that perhaps a prior culture was better / closer to God and that we need to return to that time. I get the impression from Rediscover Catholicism that the middle ages (~ 1,000 A.D) were a very good time. What makes ANY culture or ANY time more or less holy than modern culture? Did God favor a certain period of time because it scored high on His “holy-o-meter”? I think modern culture is just as good and just as bad as any other culture. Personally, I would choose modern culture over any culture I’ve read about in history books. I’m sure most people reading this would. 🙂
  2. We are all a product of modern culture. There is nothing we can do about that other than to understand our strengths and weaknesses as a culture and work to improve them. The disease is NOT modern culture, but as you said, humanity in general since the beginning of time. MKs is attacking the wrong thing IMO.
  3. Matthew Kelly points out the wrongness of modern culture, yet continuously uses modern culture references (business, Michael Jordan - hardly a role model, Mother Teresa, etc…) to inspire us. So which is it? Bad or good? Very confusing for me.
  4. Our modern culture is heavily influenced by Individualism (as MK suggests) and yet the antidote to the crisis of modern culture is MKs list of disciplines (aka Pillars) that seem to me to be individualistic “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” like Michael Jordan… be the best version of yourself… push yourself harder. What’s the opposite of Individualism?
I agree that we are sinful people in need of a savior! We the breathing have yet to live perfect lives, but I do not agree with Martin Luther and John Calvin and Matthew Kelly that we are piles of **** that should always be reminded of our how we are failing every day and in every way. I know way too many holy men and women in my community along that are serving the Lord in our church every day to think that there could only be a small number (out of billions of Christians) that are holding up the light of Christ in our modern culture.

Why ask me for a stat proving the goodness the Christianity produces on a daily basis? Matthew Kelly should have done his due diligence to research his statistic on the badness of our modern culture and it’s disease that makes us all bad. 🙂
Moore11 said:
I was confused by your impression of Kelly. I find him to be more along the lines of the Catholic version of the “health and wealth” Gospel, or as someone said earlier the Olseen thought. His delivery is transparent and a little offensive. But absolutely basic in content.
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Look at Francis Chan for a better comparison, in my opinion. Francis Chan (and his peers) are leading a new wave in evangelical circles of what I call “fear based” motivation. Evangelicals just went through a decade of “Love Wins” theology and are flipping now to the other extreme… what for this now and for the next few years. Matthew Kelly is joining their ranks, IMO. Again, just my opinion, I definitely could be wrong. I just need someone to show me that I’m wrong, cuz I’m just not seeing it any other way yet. 🙂
Moore11 said:
But I dont think he claims to be a “theologian” which is good because like I said there is little content that is deep there.
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Right, but our Church leaders are theologians and they are pushing this book on us. Does this really align with the whole of Catholic theology? I could be wrong, but this book reminds me of my 33 years in protestant culture, granted, I’ve only been exposed to 2 years of Catholic culture. I guess I thought the Catholic church was different. Maybe I just need more time to see it’s all the same. ?

I’d write more, but my post is already getting too long. Thanks for the reply. I mean no disrespect to anyone reading my comments, I’m simply trying to understand where this strong message from my diocese fits into the theological framework of the Catholic church.

Peace.
 
One last comments on modern culture…

“Be the best version of yourself” is ironically a very modern statement that conveys Individualism and Relativism. I don’t see that the antidote to the “crisis of the church” is to immerse ourselves into more of the bad attributes of modern culture.

Am I off base here?
 
tmichalski77 said:
Moore11 - thanks for your reply.

My point about his ripping apart our modern culture and why that bothers me to much is for a few reasons.
  1. Pointing out our modern culture as being the root of the problem presupposes (to me) that a prior culture was better / closer to God and that we need to return to that time. I get the impression from Matthew Kelly’s disdain for modern culture and his “pillars” that the middle ages (~ 1,000 A.D) were a very good time. What makes ANY culture or ANY time more or less holy than modern culture? Did God favor a certain period of time because it was high on His “holy-o-meter”? I think modern culture is just as good and just as bad as any other culture. I understand your veiw is skewed and colored by a former protestant life. I myself am a convert.👍 But I would caution you to not let the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction just because it reminds you of a protestant perversion of reality. The Catholic Church is actually quite ahrd on modern culture, and for good reason. With babies being killed in numbers that no war or holocaust has ever approached, with sexuality and athism being so prevalent and with our thoughts being flooded by media of all sorts we are truly living in some of the most Godless times ever! And the Church is quite vocal about this. St faustina, Popes, and our Church are telling us to turn, to turn and repent. They are telling us it is bad, and getting worse. I think this is a good thing to reflect on for lent!👍 How about you and I do that. Lets reflect on how we are called to be in the World and not of the World, lets also be honest about the prevalence and ease at which evil is permitted to move into our homes, and thoughts in this modern time and culture.
  2. We are all a product of modern culture. There is nothing we can do about that other than to understand our strengths and weaknesses as a culture and work to improve them. The disease is NOT modern culture. No, you are wrong. We are survivors of modern culture and we are called to be a light in the darkness. The disease is sin and evil, modern culture is the manifestation of that. Period. We are not living in some utopia or modern revival. Quite the opposite!!!
  3. Matthew Kelly points out the wrongness of modern culture, yet continuously uses modern culture references (business, Michael Jordan - hardly a role model, Mother Teresa, etc…) to inspire us. So which is it? Bad or good? 👍 Great point. One of the reasons I think MK is light on theology.
  4. Our modern culture is heavily influenced by Individualism (as MK suggests) and yet the antidote to the crisis of modern culture is MKs list of disciplines (aka Pillars) that seem to me to be individualistic “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” like Michael Jordan… be the best version of yourself… push yourself harder.👍👍 Again. I absolutely find this a valid point.
I agree that we are sinful people in need of a savior! We the breathing have yet to live perfect lives, but I do not agree with Martin Luther and John Calvin and Matthew Kelly that we are piles of **** that should always be reminded of our how we are failing every day and in every way. I know way too many holy men and women serving the Lord in our church every day that inspire me to draw closer to God to shake my finger at what billion(s?) of Christians are doing in our modern culture. Again, make sure you are not so disgusted by anything that smells of Protestantism that you miss a greater truth.

Look at Francis Chan for a better comparison, in my opinion. I see Osteen as seeing the world through rose colored glasses to an extreme… Matthew Kelly was too dark in his book and down about “we the living” for me to see “healthy and wealth”. Again, just my opinion, I definitely could be wrong. 🙂

Right, but our Church leaders are theologians and they are pushing this book on us. Does this really align with the whole of Catholic theology? I could be wrong, but this book reminds me of my 33 years in protestant culture, granted, I’ve only been exposed to 2 years of Catholic culture, but I thought the Catholic church was different. Maybe I just need more time to see it’s all the same. ??? I have not seen one theologian push it. Not one. Your parish priest may not be a “theologian” and no one is pushing the book as a theological truth. I can’t imagine a real theologian would give it a minute of thought. It is intellectual fluff. That does not mean it cannot be helpful to some.🤷 Feel free to cite a theologian who is pushing this book?

I’d write more, but my post is already getting too long. Thanks for the reply. I mean no disrespect to anyone reading my comments, I’m simply trying to understand where this strong message from my diocese fits into the theological framework of the Catholic church.

Peace.
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No disrespect taken on my side at all! I think this is a productive and good conversation that we all can take something from. I think MK can be a good person to speak to some people that need to be met where they are. If you start quoting Church fathers to someone who has had MJ and Kobe as the modern prophets of today then you are going to lose them. My problem with MK is that some in my parish think him to be some sort of modern miracle worker. He isnt.
 
We are all wearing colored glasses of one sort or another as perfect objectivity simply is not possible for us mere mortals. I’m not wishing to swing to the side of “everyone is near sinless in our modern culture” from the current side of MK, which is “modern culture is the worst evil yet”. I’m looking for the mean, the (Aristotelian) middle, so that I can better judge the extremes on either side.
we are truly living in some of the most Godless times ever! And the Church is quite vocal about this. St faustina, Popes, and our Church are telling us to turn, to turn and repent. They are telling us it is bad, and getting worse. I think this is a good thing to reflect on for lent! How about you and I do that. Lets reflect on how we are called to be in the World and not of the World, lets also be honest about the prevalence and ease at which evil is permitted to move into our homes, and thoughts in this modern time and culture.
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This is where I’m going to get a bit philosophical / psychological and point out that sin is not the outward physical acts that we perform, but the interior freewill choice that we make in our inner being to do the opposite of what God wants for us. It’s terrible that we have legalized abortion, but so did Rome during the time of Constantine where fathers could leave their babies (up to a certain age) to die in the sun in certain designated spaces of the city. Media is truly bombarding us with what and how to think, believe, act, and it’s truly the reason why I don’t allow much TV watching in my house. BUT, is the TV the cause of our sin? If we had no TV, theaters, or other entertainment that leads to sin, would we be more holy? Do our outward actions define our sin? – I’m sorry to jump back to this, but John Calvin believed that his culture was so sinful that God was punishing them with wars because they were behaving so poorly. Mr. Calvin worked hard to setup a theocracy in Geneva whereby he would setup a state in which God Himself would rule (through John’s leadership). Mr. Calvin ended up creating a very oppressive environment due to his incessant need to hang people for violating God’s laws and to keep the purest culture possible. Perhaps this is a poor example because Calvin went too far in his pursuit of holiness. – History shows many church leaders, popes, saints, holy people, and others claiming their day and time to be the most godless EVER. Read Socrates, Aristotle, Plato – read the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament), read history for the last 2,000 years. It’s full of barbaric acts that would make us blush.

I can’t see that the interior human condition is more sinful than it was 3,000 years ago. We can blame different things now that have a bigger impact, like TV, Internet, etc… but humanity would still sin if these modern gadgets didn’t exist.

So, my point about MK stating that Modern Culture is the problem, it’s actually EVERY CULTURE that is the problem! Perhaps MK should just clarify that due to legalized abortion, violence and gossip on the TV, and porn on the Internet, we are in dire straights. I would greatly appreciate it if MK would expand upon his beliefs that if we perfect the exterior and clean up modern culture, that we would all be less likely to sin, which would lead us to holiness. 🙂

I rail on this hard because I’ve seen and experienced the extremes of bashing culture and working harder to fix yourself and fix the people around you. It has yet to achieve its desired outcome and ALWAYS ends in division of people/groups.

Finally, your point about people of God (we the Church, popes, the Church as in the priestly hierarchy, and saints) being hard on modern culture and demanding repentance. My ears are open and I’m listening and am in the ranks with you in the act of turning away from that which takes me away from God. We the people of the Church (every member) aught to be more clear on what it is we are asking people to repent of and what to turn to. One poster in this thread said it best: we aught to be the best version of JESUS that we can be.

Moore11, thanks for the replies. My sincerest appreciation for you participation in this dialogue. I’m absorbing your responses and letting them sink in. It’ll take me a while to filter through what is true or not, as well as whether what I’m saying is aligned with the truth or not.

Peace.
 
Forgot to answer your statement about whether or not theologians are pushing this. I’ll be quick. 🙂

No, I see no theologians pushing this. My archdiocese IS pushing this every chance they can get, so I would have hoped “the theologians” guiding Church leaders would have reviewed it to ensure it’s alignment with Catholic teachings. – Perhaps they did and perhaps it’s kosher. I don’t see it and I ask too many questions, thus here I am. 🙂

Moore11, you seem to have side-stepped this issue fairly well, but perhaps it’s because the book 1/2 aligns with your outlook on life. I am going to side-step this issue as well, even though the book doesn’t articulate anything very well. It’s not theology, it’s not rediscovering anything other than Matthew Kelly’s personal outlook of life and his favorite disciplines (aka pillars) that work well for his personality.

Side stepping… now.

Peace.
 
I was lent a copy a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. The person who suggested it was in the Peace Corps and discerning a vocation at the time. She was impressed and sent a copy to her mother (former nun for 22 years) who also enjoyed it. Our church handed out copies at Christmas services as a mission. We were to pass it on to someone who had fallen away from the church, or wasn’t active. Done and that person enjoyed it, too. I am purchasing another copy for a friend thinking about converting.

It gets my vote for whatever that is worth.
 
Yes, several years ago. After digesting it, I gave several copies away as gifts to friends and family. Later, our parish bought enough to give one to each family. At a minimum, it’s practical application of the faith and, I believe, much more. Matthew Kelly is a wonderful writer and spiritual guide for Christians. Many have (and will) benefit from this book and Mr. Kelly’s other works.
 
My parish gave out copies of this and I plan on reading it during Lent. The spin put on it at one Mass was that it was a good starting point that could help to get people more interested in learning more about our faith. I can’t say how good it is from an instructional point of view yet, but one of the things I valued most about Catholicism for Dummies was that, in addition to being instructional, it got me started on learning more about our faith. If I like Kelly’s book, I’ll encourage my family to read it. Otherwise, it will make its way to the bottom of the bookshelf.
 
Gordon Sims;10355731 The spin put on it at one Mass was that it was a good starting point that could help to get people more interested in learning more about our faith… [/QUOTE said:
That is a very accurate description. In my opinion.
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