The Truth Will Make You Free: The New Evangelization for a Secular Age, a Study in Development by Robert F. Leavitt

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Truth Will Make You Free: The New Evangelization for a Secular Age, a Study in Development by Robert F. Leavitt Frank DeSiano, CSP, DMin Leavitt, Robert F. The Truth Will Make You Free: The New Evangelization for a Secular Age, a Study in Development. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2019. 332 pages. Paperback. $34.95. ISBN: 9780814646687. The key to Robert Leavitt’s very helpful review of the present state of the New Evangelization lies in the second part of this book’s title: “A Study in Development.” Leavitt has taken upon himself to review most of the major documents and literature in this area, along with the multi-layered dynamics of several centuries which have led us to our present situation. If you have ever been stumped when asked, “What Is the New Evangelization?” this book explains why answering that question is often so difficult. After providing a synopsis of the development of evangelization/new evangelization (33–37), Leavitt, in the rest of this book, elaborates on his theme, an elaboration that underscores the context of broader philosophical and cultural ideas. Right from the beginning, Leavitt positions the discussion of New Evangelization in the context of secular culture. The early chapters present the long-range framework for the secularism and religious indifference we see today, much of it rooted in a totally proper rejection of the violence that has been associated with religion (82 ff.); “the gift of tongues for a secular age requires a contemporary translation of the Gospel of Christ that can move the apathetic disciples and the religiously indifferent” (104). He then reviews “the long nineteenth century,” with its stark confrontation of the newer manifestations of secularity and the Church’s drawn-out reaction to it. The Second Vatican Council sought to move the Church beyond the impasse that had arisen between church and world. He reviews the council documents that caused the greatest negative reaction in some church sectors, notably the Declaration on Religious Freedom (124). This sets up the framework for the chapter, “The Mission to the Courtyard of the Gentiles,” in which the term New Evangelization emerges during the ministry of St. John Paul II. “In the chapter that follows, Leavitt addresses how Pope Benedict openly deals with this tension. He cites at length Benedict’s address to [End Page 237] the Pontifical Council for Culture in 2008 along with a 2009 speech in which Benedict references the “Courtyard of the Gentiles” (153–4). Benedict’s emphasis had moved to reflecting on the ways in which Christian and secular humanism might be open to each other. Benedict convened the “Synod on the New Evangelization” in 2010 and presided over it in 2012. His retirement that year meant that this apostolic emphasis would now devolve to his successor, Pope Francis. “One thing, however, is clear about it. Secularism was parsed more carefully in The Joy of the Gospel than before” (155). Leavitt reflects deeply about secular culture, using the thought of Paul Ricoeur, Daniel Bell, and Charles Taylor. To talk about secular culture as if it was a simple thing with which faith could readily deal becomes, upon Leavitt’s treatment, a rather naïve idea. “Modernity is far from the simple concept and identity we like to imagine it is. It keeps shifting in meaning” (185). In other words, to the extent that New Evangelization might define itself against modernity and secularity, it can also overlook both the many layers of modern life as well as potential ways of dealing with it. Needless to say, the argument of this book offers an important contribution to our thinking about faith and culture, Church and world, New Evangelization and secularity. After looking at the nuances of secularity in Chapter 8 by presenting the thinking of Charles Taylor, Leavitt moves on to Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel.” He uses this document to create positive direction for the development of the theme he is treating. In the conclusion of this book, Leavitt offers six directions for evangelization and modern life. In the end he asserts, “In this book I have argued that only by broadening our idea of what secularism means...