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Summary
Summary
Bestselling author of Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic , Garry Wills spent five years as a young man at a Jesuit seminary and nearly became a priest himself. But after a lifetime of study and reflection, he now poses some challenging questions: Why do we need priests at all? Why did the priesthood arise in a religion that began without it and opposed it? Would Christianity be stronger without the priesthood, as it was at its outset?
Meticulously researched, persuasively argued, and certain to spark debate, Why Priests? asserts that the anonymous Letter to Hebrews, a late addition to the New Testament canon, helped inject the priesthood into a Christianity where it did not exist, along with such concomitants as belief in an apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of redemption. But Wills does not expect the priesthood to fade entirely away. He just reminds us that Christianity did without it in the time of Peter and Paul with notable success.
Wills concludes with a powerful statement of his own beliefs in a book that will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike and stand for years to come as a towering achievement.
Author Notes
Garry Wills, 1934 - Garry Wills was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1934. Wills received a B.A. from St. Louis University in 1957, an M.A. from Xavier University of Cincinnati in 1958, an M.A. (1959) and a Ph.D. (1961) in classics from Yale. Wills was a junior fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies from 1961-62, an associate professor of classics and adjunct professor of humanities at Johns Hopkins University from 1962-80.
Wills was the first Washington Irving Professor of Modern American History and Literature at Union College, and was also a Regents Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Silliman Seminarist at Yale, Christian Gauss Lecturer at Princeton, W.W. Cook Lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School, Hubert Humphrey Seminarist at Macalester College, Welch Professor of American Studies at Notre Dame University and Henry R. Luce Professor of American Culture and Public Policy at Northwestern University (1980-88). Wills is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his articles appear frequently in The New York Review of Books.
Wills is the author of "Lincoln at Gettysburg," which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1993 and the NEH Presidential Medal, "John Wayne's America," "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government" and "The Kennedy Imprisonment." Other awards received by Wills include the National Book Critics Award, the Merle Curti Award of the organization of American Historians, the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale Graduate School, the Harold Washington Book Award and the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, which was for writing and narrating the 1988 "Frontline" documentary "The Candidates."
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Do we really need Catholic priests? Wills, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Why I Am a Catholic, dares to pose this controversial question during a time when vocations have declined drastically, leaving some Catholics without access to the sacraments. The author draws upon robust biblical scholarship, especially when focusing on the New Testament letter from Paul to the Hebrews, the book used to justify the creation of the priesthood. The goal of this project is not to bash priests-the author counts many priests as friends and even dedicates the book to the late Jesuit cardinal and theologian Henri de Lubac. But his thorough research elucidates the priesthood's specious origins and reminds Christians that the Church did just fine without priests in its early years, and could again. Unfortunately, the author's work may not influence many, given the multiple roles the priesthood now fills for the faithful. Catholic priests are more than sacramental machines; they also counsel, help heal relationships, and act as spiritual guides. Still, one cannot help but be impressed with this brilliant work written by a scholar whose love for the Church compels him to make it better. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Pulitzer Prize winner Wills (Verdi's Shakespeare, 2011, etc.), a venerable voice on church history, thought and practice, provides a stunning critique of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Without equivocation, the author argues that the entire institution of the priesthood is based on pure fallacy. Wills' argument is not a Protestant one disguised as Catholic; it is entirely Catholic in its tone and approach, making it all the more compelling to all readers. The author begins by explaining the unparalleled importance of the priesthood in Catholic doctrine, always reminding readers that this importance is based primarily on Eucharistic theology. The miracle of transubstantiation is the linchpin for the power of the priesthood. By systematically deconstructing the Book of Hebrews, Wills begins to undermine the concept of the Roman Catholic priest. Going further, he boldly confronts the idea of Christ's death as "sacrifice," theorizing that the incarnation, not the crucifixion, was the truer source of humanity's atonement. Wills' book is sure to provoke controversy, but his arguments are well-constructed and hard to ignore. While giving due respect to those priests through the ages who served others in humility, he points out that the exalted caste of the priesthood is at best antithetical to Jesus' teachings about community and piety. At worst, it allows sin and corruption to fester. Wills' writing is informed by accessible erudition and marked by subtle sarcasm (such as describing the Host as "a kind of benevolent kryptonite," or discussing the things Anselm "does not allow God to do"). Though many Catholics will flatly reject Wills' arguments on principle, many others will find him to be elucidating doubts they may have already had. A comprehensive, critical exploration of the origin and meaning of priesthood and a formidable volley lobbed at tradition.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
As a boy caddying at a local golf course, Wills marveled at how overawed golfers would surrender their tee times to any Catholic priest showing up with a golf bag. Now a mature author, Wills explains such deference to clerics as a trivial but telling instance of priestly privilege. That privilege, Wills argues, reflects the position of the priest as the singularly holy figure who presides over the ritual of transforming the consecrated host and wine into Christ's flesh and blood through the miracle of transubstantiation. Wills sees no trace of this miracle in the gospel account of the Lord's Supper, nor any evidence of priests' leading the church of the New Testament. The scriptural text typically cited to justify the Catholic understanding of the eucharist and the priesthood namely, the Epistle to the Hebrews here receives skeptical scrutiny as a dubious late addition to the canon. Professing faith in the Catholic creed but attacking the Catholic priesthood with Protestant zeal, Wills invites readers into a dialogue outside of ecclesiastical boundaries.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
GARRY WILLS wants us to know that he really bears no animus toward priests. Truly. Some of his best friends, not to mention his mentors, are priests. His quarrel is not with priests but with the specious notion of the priesthood, which, he argues, finds no precedent in the early church and precious little warrant in the New Testament. Jesus never claimed for himself the mantle of priesthood, nor did he, a Jew, hail from the priestly tribe of Levi. The sole reference to Jesus as priest in the New Testament, Wills says, occurs in the Epistle to the Hebrews, an enigmatic letter of unknown provenance. The writer of the letter introduces the notion of Jesus as priest not in the line of Aaron (Levite) but in the tradition of Melchizedek, the obscure Canaanite king of Salem who makes a cameo appearance in Genesis and is mentioned again briefly in Psalm 110. Using his linguistic skills and his impressive command of both secondary literature and patristic sources, Wills raises doubts aplenty about "the Melchizedek myth," and the priestly claims for Jesus in the "idiosyncratic" Epistle to the Hebrews. He notes as well the linguistic anomalies of the Genesis passage and even questions the inclusion of Hebrews in the canon of Scripture. The Epistle to the Hebrews also posits a novel interpretation of the Crucifixion, Wills argues, that of substitutionary atonement: the death of Jesus was necessary to placate the anger of a wrathful God against a sinful humanity. In this scheme, God demanded the blood sacrifice of his own son. Wills challenges this notion on several grounds, including its regressive "substitution of human sacrifice for animal sacrifice." In fact, he points out, the Greek word for "sacrifice" occurs 15 times in Hebrews, more than in the rest of the New Testament combined. Jesus, moreover, understood himself as a prophet, not a priest. "Jesus was acting in the prophetic tradition when he cleansed the Temple, driving out the money changers," Wills writes. "Though he attended the Temple, as any Jewish layman would, he performed no priestly acts there; presided over nothing; did not enter the Holy of Holies; made no animal sacrifice," according to Wills. "He excoriates priests, and priests in return contrive his death." So, to quote the book's title, "why priests?" The standard Roman Catholic teaching is that all priestly authority derives from Peter, to whom Jesus bestowed "the keys of the kingdom"; the authority of every priest, according to Catholic doctrine, can be traced through a line of "apostolic succession" back to Peter, the first bishop of Rome. The teachings of Jesus, however, were radically egalitarian: "The last shall be first, and the first last." Neither Jesus nor his followers claimed to be priests, Wills maintains, and "there is no historical evidence for Peter being bishop anywhere - least of all at Rome, where the office of bishop did not exist in the first century C.E." Having attributed the abiding conundrum of the priesthood to "the Melchizedek myth" propagated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Wills writes that this new priestly class began over the centuries to arrogate to itself powers and prerogatives unimagined by Jesus and his disciples. Although Jesus had instructed his followers not to "address any man on earth as father," priests demanded that very honorific. Central to the priestly claims to authority, Wills says, was the importance of the sacraments, especially celebration of the eucharist, which could be performed, the church declared, only by priests. "The most striking thing about priests, in the later history of Christianity," the author writes, "is their supposed ability to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ." This exclusivity, according to Wills, derives from Thomas Aquinas rather than Jesus. The Thomistic view of the eucharist understands the Mass as re-enacting the sacrifice of Christ, from which all other graces devolve to the believer. The church, following Aquinas, vested the power of transubstantiation - the bread and wine of holy communion actually becomes the body and blood of Christ - in the priesthood. With that magical power, the priesthood increasingly set itself apart from the laity. Wills argues that an alternative understanding of Jesus and the eucharist, one more consonant with the New Testament (Hebrews excepted) and informed by Augustine, sees Jesus as coming to harmonize humanity with himself. The eucharistic meal remains a meal (as it was in the first century), not a sacrifice, one that celebrates the union between Christ and his followers. "One does nothing but disrupt this harmony by interjecting superfluous intermediaries between Jesus and his body of believers," Wills writes. "When these 'representatives' of Jesus to us, and of us to Jesus, take the feudal forms of hierarchy and monarchy, of priests and papacy, they affront the camaraderie of Jesus with his brothers." If some elements of Wills's thesis sound familiar, they are. In the not-so-distant past, another formidable thinker and critic - someone who also favored Augustine over Aquinas - mounted a similar case. In his 1520 "Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," Martin Luther argued against "Roman presumption" and punctured the pretensions of the clergy: "Priests, bishops or popes . . . are neither different from other Christians nor superior to them." Similarly, in "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church," published the same year, Luther wrote that "priests are not lords, but servants," and "the sacrament does not belong to the priests, but to all men." If the priesthood is superfluous, if priests are indeed an accretion of church history, where does that leave Wills himself, a cradle Catholic who spent more than five years in a Jesuit seminary preparing to become a priest? His final chapter is a model of elegant simplicity, a contrast (intended or not) to the flummery often associated with his own church. He opens by repeating that he feels "no personal animosity toward priests," nor does he expect the priesthood to disappear. "I just want to assure my fellow Catholics that, as priests shrink in numbers," he writes, "congregations do not have to feel they have lost all connection with the sacred just because the role of priests in their lives is contracting." If the early followers of Jesus had no need for priests, Wills continues, neither do contemporary believers. "If we need fellowship in belief - and we do - we have each other," he writes. Catholic believers can also find sustenance "in the life of other churches." What does Wills believe, if not in "popes and priests and sacraments"? With legions of other Christians, he affirms the Nicene Creed; the mystical body of Christ, "which is the real meaning of the eucharist"; and the afterlife. Wills also expresses appreciation for the Blessed Virgin and for the saints: "I do not want to get along without the head of Augustine or the heart of Francis of Assisi to help me." "There is one God, and Jesus is one of his prophets," Wills concludes, "and I am one of his millions of followers." For those millions, scattered across time and space, that's an affirmation worthy of celebration. Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, is chairman of the religion department at Dartmouth College. He is completing a biography of Jimmy Carter.
Choice Review
In Why Priests?, Wills (emer., Northwestern Univ.) critically examines the Roman Catholic priesthood. Arguing from tradition, scripture, and sacramental theology, he presents a harsh critique of the priesthood and its influence on Roman Catholicism. His claim is that the priesthood's use of transubstantiation has created an unhealthy divide between priests and the laity. Wills then argues against the entire priestly tradition found in the biblical figure Melchizedek and the book of Hebrews. By deconstructing the "Melchizedek myth" and the book of Hebrews, Wills hopes to eliminate the foundation of the priesthood. His arguments against Melchizedek and the book of Hebrews constitute most of the text, making one wonder whether this is actually supposed to be a commentary on the book of Hebrews. Much of this material can be found in most commentaries and offers few surprises. Even the final chapters on atonement, the sacraments, and the Last Supper fail to present anything that cannot already be found in other material. Overall this book is more suited to a general audience than the academy. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers. J. L. Best St. Thomas University
Library Journal Review
Award-winning political historian Wills (history, emeritus, Northwestern Univ.; What Jesus Meant) here offers another book that critiques practices of the institutional Roman Catholic Church. With polemic approaches similar to those in his Why I Am a Catholic, Wills questions the need for a priesthood today, supporting his arguments by exploring texts on the Melchizedek priesthood, noting the absence of priests in the early church, analyzing Paul's Letter to the Romans, and presenting scholarly evidence questioning the Eucharist as essential to the priesthood. Though neither a scripture scholar nor a theologian, Wills bolsters 18 chapters with wide-ranging endnote citations to major biblical and theological studies. He pits common sense and reasoning against church attitudes and practices developed historically that affect issues of morality today. Plentiful quotations include Augustus and Thomas Aquinas. VERDICT One admires the author's command of sources and development of arguments pedagogically and engagingly expressed. Their validity will be judged by scholars in the field. Articulate, controversial, provocative, and a very personal examination of leadership in the Catholic Church, this work will be welcomed by Wills fans, and best placed in academic religious collections.-Anna Donnelly, St. John's. Univ., Jamaica, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
