H
HagiaSophia
Guest
From: NCR 1/7/05
"Bishop Sheen wrote Peace of Soul at a time when psychoanalysis was a prevailing part of the culture. The book remains valuable not because of what it said about Freud and the superego but because of its insights on Christ and the cross.
Further, Bishop Sheen’s dissection of issues like conflict, redemption, conscience, morbidity, guilt, remorse, frustration, confession, conversion, sex and love – all addressed through the prism of Christianity – are timeless, as is the book’s opening statement: “Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace.”
Wars, said Bishop Sheen, “are only projections of the conflicts waged inside the souls of modern men and women, for nothing happens in the external world that has not first happened within a soul.” Bishop Sheen’s interest was not so much peace of mind but peace of soul.
The best section in Peace of Soul is chapter three, “The Origin of Conflicts and Their Redemption,” which features some of the most profound and eloquent displays of writing to be found in any bookstore. I cannot do it justice here. In Chapter 3, Bishop Sheen attributed the origin of conflicts to human nature itself, and resolved that redemption through Christ is the only true solution to the human condition. The way in which Bishop Sheen made his case, and the sheer brilliance of his metaphors and his command of common sense and theology, are extraordinary. He presented the Christian Gospel in a manner nearly impossible to reject. Moreover, he did so by integrating Catholic theology, including the Immaculate Conception, in a likewise compelling way.
Bishop Sheen addressed the explosive mixture of human nature and God’s gift of free will. On the latter, he wrote: “God refuses to be a totalitarian dictator in order to abolish evil by destroying human freedom.” Bishop Sheen noted that Jesus Christ was the one figure among us who did precisely what God asked, and did so because he was not just human but divine. Only God himself, incarnate in the form of Christ, could provide the redemption needed by us fallible, sinful creatures. We ourselves are incapable. “The debt could be paid only by the Divine Master,” wrote Bishop Sheen, “coming out of his eternity into time…”
NCR (*1/7/05)
"Bishop Sheen wrote Peace of Soul at a time when psychoanalysis was a prevailing part of the culture. The book remains valuable not because of what it said about Freud and the superego but because of its insights on Christ and the cross.
Further, Bishop Sheen’s dissection of issues like conflict, redemption, conscience, morbidity, guilt, remorse, frustration, confession, conversion, sex and love – all addressed through the prism of Christianity – are timeless, as is the book’s opening statement: “Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace.”
Wars, said Bishop Sheen, “are only projections of the conflicts waged inside the souls of modern men and women, for nothing happens in the external world that has not first happened within a soul.” Bishop Sheen’s interest was not so much peace of mind but peace of soul.
The best section in Peace of Soul is chapter three, “The Origin of Conflicts and Their Redemption,” which features some of the most profound and eloquent displays of writing to be found in any bookstore. I cannot do it justice here. In Chapter 3, Bishop Sheen attributed the origin of conflicts to human nature itself, and resolved that redemption through Christ is the only true solution to the human condition. The way in which Bishop Sheen made his case, and the sheer brilliance of his metaphors and his command of common sense and theology, are extraordinary. He presented the Christian Gospel in a manner nearly impossible to reject. Moreover, he did so by integrating Catholic theology, including the Immaculate Conception, in a likewise compelling way.
Bishop Sheen addressed the explosive mixture of human nature and God’s gift of free will. On the latter, he wrote: “God refuses to be a totalitarian dictator in order to abolish evil by destroying human freedom.” Bishop Sheen noted that Jesus Christ was the one figure among us who did precisely what God asked, and did so because he was not just human but divine. Only God himself, incarnate in the form of Christ, could provide the redemption needed by us fallible, sinful creatures. We ourselves are incapable. “The debt could be paid only by the Divine Master,” wrote Bishop Sheen, “coming out of his eternity into time…”
NCR (*1/7/05)