The Pivotal Players – Models of Faithfulness for Catholics and Non-Catholics

 by David Keating

The Keating Files – December 9, 2020

 

When Bishop Robert Barron’s Catholicism series ran on PBS it made a cultural impact within Christianity that surpassed expectations. He often tells stories about how he had to travel across the United States seeking out funding in order to get the initial project done. Even more surprising was that PBS decided to air it. The program itself was a rigorous defense of the Catholic faith, but one that drew from all the elements that go into being a Catholic. 

This meant that the series presented the key parts of Catholic doctrine. It took the viewer on trips around the world as it showcased various holy sites and buildings that are important to Catholics around the world. It also turned a spotlight toward key figures within the development of Roman Catholicism, as well as Christianity more broadly.

 

In The Pivotal Players, Barron once again returns to some of the important people within the Catholic tradition. The book (which is based on the documentary that bears the same name) focuses on St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Michelangelo, Bartolomé de las Casas, Ignatius of Loyola, John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton, Fulton Sheen, and Flannery O’Connor. 

 

Early on in the book, Barron reminds his audience that this is by no means an exhaustive list of every important person in Catholic history, but instead represents key figures who illustrate different aspects of Catholic life. For instance, St. Augustine reminds us of the rich intellectual life that accompanies the Christian tradition. Michelangelo serves as a window into the way in which art can help to channel the divine. More modern figures such as Flannery O’Connor help the reader to see the way in which Christian themes can intersect with fiction and literature in order to explore the implications of our faith as it plays out in a fictional southern gothic setting. 

 

Part of what Barron’s book does so well is to remind us of the various facets of Christian faith and practice. So often we shoehorn everything that is associated with religion into a distinct spiritual category and sequester it off from the rest of our experience as human beings. But what these figures remind us of is the many and various ways in which the Christian faith engages the mind as well as the whole person. 

 

Despite the book serving well as an introduction to these “pivotal players,” there is an issue that arises. It is simply an introduction to these people. More definitely could have been written, but it would have required a much larger book. Given the brief nature of each chapter, one can feel as though they are left wanting to learn more about each character presented. At times, Barron’s summary of their body of work can feel a little bit reductionist. In one particular instance, Barron describes St. Augustine’s view of sin as an off-character and that it points to the fact that life just isn’t quite how it should be. While this is a fine introduction to the idea for those unfamiliar with St. Augustine’s work, it’s hardly comprehensive. 

 

Upon completing the book, one may feel as though the brevity actually helps the reader. The book itself becomes an invitation to read more about these important Christians. Perhaps it would also motivate the reader to seek out the key writings that are mentioned in each chapter of Barron’s book. 

 

The most helpful aspect of this book is that, through each of these people, a sort-of roadmap to Catholicism can be crafted. One feels as though they are better able to articulate the unique character of the Roman Catholic faith and feel more at home in the language of that denomination. Perhaps what members of other denominations can take away from this is how helpful it is to create an outline of the important members of your church body, and how it helps to get a better understanding of what you have come to believe. I can quite easily imagine a Lutheran version of The Pivotal Players in which one is able to study not just Martin Luther, but other significant individuals such as Martin Chemnitz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Herman Sasse, and many more. Alas, this remains a task for another day. 

 

In the meantime, feel free to give Bishop Robert Barron’s The Pivotal Players a read as you encounter many Christians who serve as a model of faithfulness for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

 

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The Reverend David Keating is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis, Nebraska.

 

Recent by Pastor Keating…

 

“Watchmen: The Miracle in One’s Life”

 

“How Does DC Comics Wrestle with Theodicy?”

 

“Arrival: If You Knew the Ending, Would You Embrace the Journey”

 

“Star Wars: What the Rise of Skywalker Got Right”

 

“Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Dante? In the Tradition of Christian Art”

 

“Faith and Family in Fargo”

 

“Death and Resurrection in Game of Thrones”

 

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“Mad Men - What is Happiness? Don Draper and St. Augustine”

 

Mad Men - What is Happiness? Don Draper and St. Augustine

 by David Keating

The Keating Files – September 28, 2020

 

One of the most enduring shows to have aired on television in recent years is AMC’s Mad Men. 

 

Mad Men features the character of Don Draper, an advertising executive whose creative pursuits, marital affairs, and drinking exploits we follow throughout the course of the series. Of the things that I love about Mad Men’s character study of Draper is that it explores what it means to truly be happy. 

 

Don is a character that, when we first meet him, appears to have it all. He has a lovely home in a suburb north of Manhattan. He has a beautiful wife named Betty, who is portrayed by January Jones. He has two children, Bobby and Sally, a white picket fence, the whole American dream that is envisioned in 1950’s America. Yet, the most consistent theme that we see Don struggle with is how to define happiness. It comes through in his creative work for his advertising firm, and it certainly comes through in conversations he has with the many different women in his life. 

 

In an early episode of Mad Men, Don describes happiness in this way, “Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is OK.” Much of Don’s work in the marketing world seems to reflect this view, especially early on in the series. It seems as if Don reflects a view that many have in our culture as well. Happiness is whatever brings us a sense of comfort and peace, perhaps even a sense of distraction, that helps us to put our minds at ease when compared to the many things which worry us in our day-to-day lives. 

 

Later on in the series, Don offers a similar take when pitching DOW Chemical on his agency taking over the marketing division of DOW. The DOW executives explain that they are happy with their agency since they have a good relationship and sales are strong. After all, they have 50% of the market share for what DOW chemical provides. To this, Don replies, “Are you? You’re happy with 50%? You’re on top and you don’t have enough. You’re happy because you’re successful for now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50% of anything. I want 100%. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not happy with anything. You don’t want most of it. You want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it.”

 

What viewers come to realize in this exchange is that Don isn’t really talking about DOW Chemical. Instead, he is offering insight into his own character’s struggles. Don has defined his own happiness in two ways: whatever provides a sense of comfort, and the idea that in order to acquire happiness, you need to be chasing the things we want, even until we have acquired everything there is to have. 

 

Christians, especially in North America, can often fall victim to the same kind of thinking that Don puts on display here. We assume that if we had a little bit more money, possessions, leisure, etc., then we would finally be happy. But what we find when we acquire these things is that they quickly become passe. Our happiness, when defined along the lines of what Don Draper describes, only becomes one moment of satisfaction before we need more. 

 

St. Augustine offers us some comfort in response to the struggles to which Mad Men gives voice. St. Augustine once wrote that, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” In other words, when left to our own devices, we will constantly be unsatisfied with the things we require. Simply put, when our faith, trust, or satisfaction is found in things other than God, we will always be dissatisfied and looking for more, even when we seemingly have acquired everything, or at least everything our culture tells us to acquire. 

 

Matthew reminds us of a similar idea in his Gospel account. He records Jesus' words which tell us, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” 

 

Christianity’s answer to Don Draper’s dilemma then is to remember what our wants are versus our needs. Focus on the things that are within our control, but, ultimately we trust that God will care for us in those things which are out of our control. Surely, God does provide for our needs. We have a Heavenly Father who cares for the Church, and therefore not only do we have the gifts of food, family, and home which stem from God, we also have the most precious gift of all: the satisfaction that comes with the eternal life which Christ Jesus offers. At the end of the day, our hearts can only truly be satisfied not in the acquisition of more happiness, but in the rest which our Savior provides. 

 

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The Reverend David Keating is pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Curtis, Nebraska.

 

Previously by Pastor Keating…

 

“Zack Snyder’s Messy Super-Jesus”

 

“Short Message: How Do, or Should, Christians Witness?”

 

“Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ - Does Christianity Have a Culture Problem?”

 

“Reflecting on 9/11: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?”