Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview by Fr. William Slattery is a stunningly insightful read.
The author, whose name you might recognize from his earlier and also very fine book Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization, is an unusual combination: a fiery Irishman, a cold-blooded PhD in epistemology who specialized in alethic logic, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, a historian – and a priest who is passionately in love with the Traditional Latin Mass. Listen to these words in the Acknowledgments section of his book:
And finally, I thank the Most Holy Trinity for having brought me to encounter some years ago a mysterious ancient ritual through a summer’s afternoon hike amid the Swiss Alps at 2,000 meters. Ever since, it has resonated within me, re-enchanting my entire existence, enlightening all that appears in these pages, bonding me as I murmur ‘I will go unto the altar of God’ to ‘the God who gives joy to my youth’ (Psalm 43).
The author in the introduction unpacks why we are in the midst of the greatest cultural revolution in 500 years. Both right wing and left wing intellectuals have resolved to create a new type of civilization because of the failure of modernity to provide a society of human flourishing. They are convinced that we live in a “disenchanted world” (Taylor).
Fr Slattery argues that Catholicism alone has the blueprints for achieving a re-enchantment of life for the masses. But he is passionately convinced that we need to change our experience of the divinely revealed certainties. He shows how the six cultural revolutions of the past 500 years have led to Christianity becoming a thing inside the mind; it is now a “religion,” a “faith,” a “spirituality.” No longer is it what it was once upon a time in Christendom: the source of connectedness, embeddedness, and embodiment.
This book aims, and in my view, succeeds in showing how Catholicism can again become a source of enchantment 24/7. The book presents two sets of reasons.
In Part I, in clear, non-technical language, the author presents the new cosmology that is gradually taking shape because of the ultramodern scientific and pure mathematics breakthroughs, notably because of quantum physics, the “Big Bang” theory, Godel’s Incompleteness theorems, and discoveries in astrophysics. All of these discoveries have overthrown the roadblocks set up by the Enlightenment.
Then in Part II he presents why Catholicism has the blueprints for the only “Great Reset” that can succeed. In a most original way, he presents the biblical vision of the ultimate goal of history as the “restoration of all things in Christ” (Pope St Pius X) on the heavenized Earth. He outlines how the biblical worldview has been given to the Mystical Body of Christ in order for us to be the spearheading movement of world change, inaugurating the beta version of that future forever civilization that will one day exist, “the new heaven and the new earth” (Rev. 21).
The author throughout the book vividly communicates how these ideas enchant your vision of history, of the natural world, of your role in life, and above all, of the Blessed Trinity. It is a powerfully existential book – especially, the final chapter. Indeed, it is mystical Catholicism in the wide sense of that adjective.
Chapter 1. Catholicism is about reality – not “religion”
Chapter 2. Thrilling times to be alive! Ultramodern breakthroughs for a fully alive lifestyle
Chapter 3. Why the status quo?
Chapter 4. The god of modernity and “official Christianity” versus the God of ultramodern Catholicism
Chapter 5. Which story do I inhabit?
Chapter 6. Breaking the code to understand the divine strategy
Chapter 7. Deeper magic: the one who can make your deadly past work backwards to give you new beginnings
Chapter 8. You are a shadow of your future self
Chapter 9. The heavenized planet earth: where history is headed
Chapter 10. Your forever home: the future ecological civilization
Chapter 11. The vision of the future civilization in which humans thrive
Chapter 12. “Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing?”
Chapter 13: Trailblazers of a new civilization
Besides the foreword by Mark Wahlberg, the book is endorsed by, among others, the world-class scientist, Professor Michael Behe.
You can get the book from the publisher Our Sunday Visitor or from Amazon.
