Only Wonder Comprehends: John Garvey in Commonweal

by Patrick Jordan (Editor), John Garvey

Overview

For over forty years, John Garvey was the “ballast” of Commonweal magazine. His award-winning essays and consistently notable columns revealed not only his acuity and alacrity, but his uncommon spiritual insight. These in turn provided momentum and substance for whatever followed in an issue of the magazine because Garvey never hesitated to wrestle with some of the most challenging and intractable topics of the day, and did so with a rich pastoral sensitivity, and a refreshing and rare intelligence.

Only Wonder Comprehends gleans from John Garvey’s many contributions to Commonweal that reflect his spiritual depth and deep appreciation of history, politics, theology, and culture. Steeped in the Christian tradition, Garvey loved to write and, in return, his readers relished what he wrote. It is hoped that this collection of his writings from Commonweal will inspire readers to cultivate a similar sense of attentiveness and commitment, for as the author himself observed, “Religious traditions are meant to transform us, not to affirm us as we are.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814644645
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	03/26/2018
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Patrick Jordan (1944-2025) served as the former managing editor of The Catholic Worker. He and his wife Kathleen were associated with Dorothy Day from 1968 until her death in 1980. From 1984 to 2012, Jordan was an editor at Commonweal magazine. He is the author of Hold Nothing Back: Writings by Dorothy Day, and Dorothy Day: Love in Action; and served as editor of Dorothy Day: Writings from Commonweal, and Only Wonder Comprehends: John Garvey in Commonweal, published by Liturgical Press. He served on the advisory board of the Dorothy Day Guild.

Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Groundings
   Climbing Trees
   Confidence v. Certainty
   A Tree Full of Monkeys
   Admitting Ignorance
   Telling the Christian Story
   The New Atheists
Portals
   The Fiction of Philip K. Dick
   Christo’s Gates
   Not a Wasted Word
   Philip Roth’s Everyman
   Myths, Fables & Parables
Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Love
   Found, Not Made
   An Unimaginable Intimacy
   Flesh Wounds
   What Is the Point of Suffering?
   Outrageous or Meaningless?
   Resurrection or Resignation?
   More than Sentiment
A Priest of and for His Times
   The Splendor of Orthodox Spirituality
  What a Priest Does
   Priests Should Be Married
   Gender & Religious Symbols
   When Church & State Marry
   When Christians Kill
   Why People Leave the Church
Doxologies
   Sing Out
   The Decline of Friendship
   Only Wonder Comprehends
   The Beginning of Wisdom
Books by John Garvey
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

John's columns are gems of the plain style: conversational, first-person, direct, without elaborate metaphors or clever categories. He introduced people from his pastoral experience or from the rest of his everyday life: ‘I once knew a man who..' Or, ‘A woman who sat next to me on a four-hour bus ride..' Where many columnists dwell on the world's wholesale miseries, John went retail: the loss of a loved one, or of love, or of faith, or of purpose.
Peter Steinfels

From the Publisher