The Liturgy, the Family, and the Crisis of Modernity
Essays of a Traditional Catholic
The decline of the Catholic Church in the developed world has been accelerated in the last decade by a devastating series of scandals involving sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. But just as clerical abuse fits in to a wider story about the abuse of power in the modern “sexual marketplace,” so the decline of Catholic church-going and religious belief finds its context in a wider collapse of cultural institutions and shared beliefs: the crisis of modernity.
This is no source of comfort for Catholics, since in recent decades the Church has provided neither shelter from secular trends nor a compelling analysis of the crisis. In these essays, Dr Joseph Shaw examines what the Church has in common with the wider world as it passes through this crisis as well as the perennial wisdom of her tradition that shows us how to escape it.
The first part examines the place of the ancient Catholic liturgy in modernity, defending it, against the misunderstandings of modernists, as something supremely suited to engage our deepest instincts towards the worship of God. The second part turns to the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and addresses a series of lines of attack on those Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass—notably the attempt to link them to the crisis of clerical abuse. The third part addresses one of the most contested issues of our times, sexuality and gender roles, and asks what, if anything, the Church can still say about them.
Dr Shaw approaches these explosive topics with seriousness and honesty, leaving behind the point-scoring of social media and partisan journalism while not shying away from unpopular teachings and uncomfortable conclusions.
Part I: Liturgy
1. Discovering and Rediscovering the Traditional Mass
2. What Is the Liturgy For?
3. Understanding the History of the Liturgy
4. Understanding Liturgical Participation
5. Traditions and the Narcissism of Consumer Capitalism
6. Tradition, Liberation, and Meaning
Part II: Crisis
7. What Vatican II Did to the Church
8. Liturgy and Orthodoxy
9. The Traditional Latin Mass and Diversity
10. Why Do They Call You “Rigid”?
11. Clericalism and the Culture of Clerical Abuse
12. Sex Education and the Ethics of Consent
Part III: Family
13. Understanding the Feminisation of Christianity
14. The Male Priesthood and Patriarchy
15. Headship and Hierarchy
16. Feminism, Patriarchy, and Regretting the Sexual Revolution
17. The Family and Culture
18. The Family and the Defence of the Faith
