Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition
Written by Garry Wills
Narrated by Michael Prichard
3/5
()
About this audiobook
Garry Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and
nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and
reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need
priests at all? Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began
without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the
priesthood, as it was at its outset? Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests?
asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the
New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity
where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an
apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the
sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of
redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely
away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of
Peter and Paul with notable success. Wills concludes with a
powerful statement of his own beliefs in a book that will appeal to
believers and nonbelievers alike and stand for years to come as a
towering achievement.
Garry Wills
Garry Wills is the author of 21 books, including the bestseller Lincoln at Gettysburg (winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award), John Wayne's America, Certain Trumpets, Under God, and Necessary Evil. A frequent contributor to many national publications, including the New York Times Magazine and the New York Review of Books, he is also an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University and lives in Evanston, Illinois.
More audiobooks from Garry Wills
Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Head and Heart: American Christianities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Why Priests?
Related audiobooks
The Catholic Church: A Short History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5St. Francis of Assisi: His Life, Teachings, and Practice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Worship in the Early Church Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Biblical Jesus: Audio Course & Free Study Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Gospel of Mark 101: A Course for Catholics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospels 101: A Catholic Course on Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Christian Writing Decoded: On Grace and Free Will Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeeking Wisdom: Spiritual Direction and the Moral Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pope Francis & Saint Francis: Your Guides to the Christian Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of the Modern World: With Power and Responsibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristian: The Politics of a Word in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Augustine: Conversions to Confessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holy Bible Letters of Paul-Part 1 Volume 27 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Faith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God and Mammon: Chronicles of American Money Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Called to Reconciliation: How the Church Can Model Justice, Diversity, and Inclusion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAt the Table with Jesus: Understanding the History, Context, and Meaning of The Last Supper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare in Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKarl Rahner: Theological Giant of the Twentieth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Apologia Pro Vita Sua Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings77 Great Catholic Homilies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChrist Unfurled: The First 500 Years of Jesus’s Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Methodism: A Compact History: Revised and Updated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilosophical Enquiry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJesus, Paul, and the Early Christians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saint Augustine: How to Understand Christianity's Great Teacher: Life, Eloquence and Theology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When the Bottom Drops Out: Finding Grace in the Depths of Disappointment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Religion & Spirituality For You
The Book of Enoch the Prophet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Problem of Pain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love the Sh!t Out of Yourself: Because Your Life Depends On It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Exorcist Tells His Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil is Afraid of Me: The Life and Work of the World's Most Famous Exorcist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power to Change: Mastering the Habits That Matter Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wake Up With Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in my First Hundred Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like a River: Finding the Faith and Strength to Move Forward after Loss and Heartache Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weight of Glory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blood of the Lamb: The Conquering Weapon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Why Priests?
18 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5An interesting, revolutionary idea from an elderly Roman Catholic, but this is a very pedantic study of the idea of the priest in the church. I would have like a study to trace the development of priests in history rather than an analysis of the theology of the eucharist and Letter to the Hebrews. The history of an idea, but it is interesting how the Jesus movement with no traditional priestly roles did develop a priestly hierarchy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gary Wills is a self-professed Roman Catholic who knows a great deal about the bible and church history. He is Jesuit-educated, spent five years in a Catholic seminary, and genuinely likes many priests. However, in his latest book, Why Priests? A Failed Tradition, he challenges not only the authority of the priesthood, but also its biblical historicity and legitimacy as an institution. Wills states that the purpose of the book is to examine why the priesthood came into a religion that began without it, and indeed opposed it. Yet now, priests are considered indispensable. Without priests, there would be , inter alia, no apostolic succession, and no belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Wills points out that there is no evidence for Peter having been a bishop, an office that did not exist in first century Rome, and that the linear “apostolic succession” of the papacy is “a chain of historical fabrication.” He argues that the priesthood keeps Catholics at a remove from other Christians and at a remove from the Jesus of the Gospels, who was a bitter critic of the priests of his day. The only reference to Christian priests in the New Testament appears in the Letter to Hebrews, originally ascribed to Paul, authorship that has since been convincingly refuted by modern scholarship. Wills questions whether it should have been included in the Canon of Scripture at all. It appears to have been added precisely to establish the importance of priests by someone in whose interest it was to validate that institution. Wills avers that the principal power of priests in Catholicism is their claimed power to administer the sacraments, in particular to change the host into the real body and blood of Christ in the Mass. He combs the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles of Paul and finds no consecrations of bread and wine. And in fact, for a long time, not all Catholic theologians believed in the power of priests to transform the bread and wine into the Eucharist, or the “Real Presence” of Christ. St. Augustine, one of the two most eminent theologians in Catholic history, did not believe in the “real presence.” And William of Occam, one of the medieval Church’s clearest thinkers, came up with a formulation of Eucharistic doctrine that denied transubstantiation. However, it was the opinion of Thomas Aquinas, adopted by the Church at The Fourth Lateran Council (1215), that ultimately prevailed. From that date (and critically, not before then) the official Church doctrine has been that the substance of the host is transformed into the body of Christ.Additionally, Wills seeks to demonstrate that the scriptural grounds of the rest of the Catholic Church’s seven sacraments are very shaky indeed. [These seven are baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction. As Wills notes, with the partial exception of baptism, all sacraments can be administered only by priests, thus ensuring the continuing necessity of priests throughout the life spans of parishioners.]Wills espouses a more streamlined form of Catholicism that emphasizes the core beliefs outlined in the Apostle’s Creed and by which the faithful communicate directly with God rather than through intermediaries (priests). He would make a good Protestant, but he prefers to stay with the faith of his youth. Evaluation: Wills is extremely learned and erudite. His knowledge of Church history is encyclopedic. He tosses off terms like “hapax logomenon,” “chiasmus,” and “paraenetic” with the ease of someone who actually knows what they mean. He is also not willing to submit to a Church hierarchy that knows less than he does and reasons less trenchantly than Occam, Abelard, and Augustine. This book is addressed primarily to Catholics, but anyone interested in Christianity (including us infidels) can benefit from its broad knowledge and incisive reasoning. (JAB)
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A disappointing book. I was looking forward to a thoughtful, reasoned argument, and instead found a polemic, in the worst sense of the word.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The real question is, Why this book? Wills basic argument is that Jesus did not create a priesthood...duh! I don't know of any Scripture scholar who would argue that did, and many point out that Jesus challenged the power structures of his society, including the Levitical priesthood. Wills argument seems to hinge on the messy thinking contained in the Letter to the Hebrews, but it is hard to understand what difference all that makes if one accepts, as Wills seems to indicate at one point he does, that an institution with widespread membership inevitably evolves offices, functions, call them what you will, to enable the institution to serve its many members.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An amazing piece of erudition and a very provacative read about the assumed importance of clergy. Far from a diatribe against the Catholic Church (although I can understand how one emotional invested in organizated religion would see it as such) Wills attempts a deconstruction of faith through a removal of those that deliver or manipulate it. Through a subtle and profound reading of the few passages from the New Testament that promote an organized clergy while focusing on passages that extol teachings about community and personal salvation. Wills presents a exposition of personal faith that many (Catholics especially) seem to avoid. With the recent "retirement" of the pope, the presentation of the institution of a clergy is timely indeed.
While not a Christian myself, I felt a similar experience in reading this to my first reading of Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ." - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Wills goes to extraordinary length to establish his thesis that priests are unnecessary. Rendering Letter to Hebrews invalid and more than I ever wanted to know about Melchisidech. Not his best effort.