Ignatius Press: Shakespeare on Love

If you're like me, you read Shakespeare in high school or college, and don't remember much of it. Sure, you can rattle off a few famous lines like Hamlet's "To be, or not to be," or Romeo's "But soft! What light through yonder window breaks," but do you really remember much else about the plays? In fact, would you go so far as to say that you even understood them back then? Or was it just funny-sounding English with a lot of references that your teacher explained to you for you to believe because you didn't know any better? That's how I always felt, but when I saw Shakespeare on Love released from Ignatius Press, I figured I would give it a shot.

True love and tragic love are the recurring themes that youth are taught when reading Romeo and Juliet in high school or college. Joseph Pearce would beg to differ though. In his book Shakespeare on Love, Mr. Pearce looks to debunk these misconceptions on the "love" that teachers and students interpret in Romeo and Juliet by looking at the play from a Catholic perspective. "Why from a Catholic perspective?" you might be asking. According to Mr. Pearce, it is because Shakespeare was Catholic, as he demonstrated in his previous two works The Quest for Shakespeare and Through Shakespeare's Eyes.

The book starts off explaining the three ways one can read Romeo and Juliet. The first way is from a fatalistic perspective, in which fate kills Romeo and Juliet. The second way to read the book is from a romantic perspective, in which it is the feuding families are ultimately responsible for the young lovers' demise. The last way, and the way which Mr. Pearce says you should read it, is from a moral perspective, where the star-crossed lovers' choices lead to their death and the deaths of many others. The book then embarks on a critical examination of Romeo, Juliet, Friar Lawrence, and some of the key scenes in the play, i.e. the balcony scene.

Each chapter was fascinating, and they provided me with key insights I did not receive in high school. At times, I was even asking myself, "Is this the same play I read in high school?" For example, I completely missed that Juliet was ONLY thirteen and Romeo was twentysomething. The most fascinating chapter to me, though, was entitled "Venus and the Virgin." In it, Mr. Pearce says that Romeo is a follower of Venus, and therefore Romeo's love is impure. He is more concerned with erotic love than true love. He therefore quickly recovers from being scorned by chaste Rosaline, and is able to find an easier target in Juliet, whom he corrupts and steals her innocence.

Overall, I found Shakespeare on Love to be a truly fascinating book that is worthy of a 5 star rating. It opened my eyes to sections I never understood, and it made me rethink everything I learned about Romeo and Juliet. If you have a teenager or twentysomething reading this play, I recommend you pick up a copy for them. Not only will they look more intelligent in the classroom setting by presenting the Catholic perspective on this play, they will also not be brainwashed by teachers who gloss over this play and try to boil the whole story down to true but tragic love and one of the greatest love stories ever told. Adult Shakespeare lovers will find this book fascinating as well. In a nutshell, buy this book!

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Saint Mary's Press: The Catholic Children's Bible Activity Book

It feels like forever since I've reviewed a children's book. I hit a backlog of adult books that I had to start posting those on Saturday. I hope that won't be the norm, but progress had to be made in my review stack. Two months ago, I reviewed the ONLY fully Catholic Children's Bible (available from St. Mary's Press). You can read the review here. Today, I am reviewing the Activity Book that complements it.

The Catholic Children's Bible Activity Book is a 100-page, spiral-bound book of activities to enrich your children's understanding of what they just read in The Catholic Children's Bible. When you look through the Bible, you notice that there are "featured stories," which the publisher believes are vital for your children to know their faith. These featured stories serve as the backbone for the Activity Book.

With each featured story, there are two activities - Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 is of course the easier activity, and Level 2 requires a bit more critical thinking. One could easily give the younger kids the Level 1 activity and save the Level 2 activity for the older kids, but in doing so, you miss two opportunities. 1. The younger kids could be challenged to think harder on their faith and might surprise you with the results. 2. The older kids might enjoy the refresher of an easier activity or just simply enjoy the particular activity. You know your children better than I do, so you know what your children will and will not enjoy.

There are many things I love about this book. For starters, the types of activities are a great variety. You will open this book and find word searches and crosswords, but you won't find forty of them. You will find crafts, mazes, encoded messages, etc. Now, the price might scare some of you away, because you are thinking that's an expensive workbook for my child. However, "ALL materials included in the activity booklet are reproducible." This feature and the spiral-bound design give you a book that's easy to Xerox and makes the perfect addition to your religious education or homeschool setting. So grab your Catholic Children's Bible and this 5-star Activity Book and teach your children the beauty of Scripture.

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Pauline Books and Media: Love and Responsibility

Before Karol Wojtyla was elected to pope and became John Paul II, he had already written what was arguably his greatest work. Let that sink in for a moment. The great saint who gave us fourteen encyclicals such as Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Fides et Ratio, and Evangelium Vitae had already written a work greater than perhaps all of his encyclicals put together. This book was entitled Love and Responsibility, and if you love reading (soon-to-be) Saint John Paul II's writings then you'll definitely want to check out this book.

I must admit that I feel ill-equipped to review Love and Responsibility. In fact, I've been at this book for months trying to parse through it and understand it to the best of my ability. A work like this requires multiple readings to begin to even comprehend all of the topics covered, and unfortunately, I was not able to devote my time to multiple readings. However, I appreciate the new translation and notes the translator, Grzegorz Ignatik, provided, as I believe I would have had an even harder time reading this work before the new translation. As a point of introduction, there are five main topics in this book:

• The Person and the Drive
• The Person and Love
• The Person and Chastity
• Justice with Respect to the Creator
• Sociology and Ethics

The text is highly philosophical and contains copious footnotes from the translator. One should try not to get bogged down though and realize that Blessed John Paul was writing about what real human love is. As far as I can surmise from the text, we best find love when we give love ourselves. Also covered in this book is the the dignity of each individual and the "responsibility" portion of the title. Our society today has warped love, and people are used and discarded by other people. That is not how God intended love when he created man and woman. Therefore, we must not only be responsible with the love we give but the love we receive as well.

It's hard to pin down a section I could describe as my favorite, but I did have one that did stand out to me. Pope John Paul II states, "Although a second marriage after the death of a spouse is justified and permitted, it is nevertheless by all means praiseworthy to remain in a state of widowhood, for in this way the union with the person who passed away is, among other things, better expressed. After all, the very value of the person does not pass away and the spiritual union with him can and should continue, even when the bodily union has ceased." This is referred to in the book as absolute monogamy and something in which I firmly believe. Like this topic and many others in the book, I appreciate the fact that Pope John Paul II didn't shy away from truth.

I would love to tell you that Love and Responsibility  is a book you can pick up and read one weekend and walk away feeling wiser and spiritually richer. On the contrary, it is a VERY challenging read. That is not to discourage you from reading this 5-star book. Quite the contrary. Anything worth understanding will take effort on your part. You will have to pore over this book and struggle to understand some points of it. The fruit it will yield you, though, will be all the sweeter. Pick this book up along with Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, and you will have the two essential texts for seeing into the mind of the brilliant Saint John Paul II.

If you would like to learn more about John Paul II's teaching on human love, check out Pauline Books and Media's site on Love and Responsibility by clicking here for many great resources! As always, if you found this review helpful, please click the link and hit Yes!