FEEHAN: THE SINGING HEART OF THE WORLD: CREATION, . . .

[Oscar]

FEEHAN: THE SINGING HEART OF THE WORLD: CREATION, EVOLUTION AND FAITH

By John Feehan Published by Columba Press, $26.95

Reviewed by Reviewed by Michele Saracino

http://ncronline.org/node/28939

Still digesting McDonagh’s writings, I wonder how these green concerns could be woven throughout every social justice principle, from questions of human dignity to the dignity of work and to solidarity. Perhaps John Feehan crystallizes this point in his poetic book The Singing Heart of the World when he poignantly claims that we need to think of the “animal as subject.” This gets to the heart of the dualism that drives our theology of anthropology and creation -- that materiality is not as important as spirituality, that a soul is the exclusive privilege of human beings, and that we are the center of the world. Until this frame shifts focus, we are stuck with this ecological mess. In the words of Feehan, this type of thinking only exhibits a “failure of intelligence,” which results in a failure to be human.

Convinced that faith does not compromise reason nor reason compromise faith, he surveys key points in history and theology, critiquing both. For Feehan, part of the problem with science has been its capitulation to and focus only on making money. Part of the Catholic failure here is not making more of an informed and educated commitment to evolutionary theory. With the appropriate changes in scientific and theological attitudes, we might be able to reimagine our embodied being as attuned to nature and geography in a way that makes us feel part of the natural world, rather than over and against it.

We might begin to believe that “creation is the absolute revelation, the very embodiment of divinity,” and in becoming conscious of this reality take on responsibility for our connectedness. We might evolve in community as one would in a “family.”