In February 1935, Dorothy Day told Catholics to read communists.
Day co-founded The Catholic Worker newspaper in New York in 1933, while the Great Depression ravaged the nation. In the face of hunger and breadlines, evictions and unemployment, Day and her friends offered “Catholic Action.” They promoted a Christ-oriented path for labor: local cooperatives that protected workers' dignity, communal farms that provided families with food and humane labor, and cooperation with fellow-travelers toward justice. The Catholic Worker staff oriented life around liturgy, solidarity, and charity because they responded to the person of Christ dignified in the poor. But in 1935, Day argued that, more than strikes, elections, or worker revolutions, “study clubs” were “essential” to Catholic Action.
“Why are study clubs essential?” She asked. “For the knowledge of fundamentals. For the knowledge of Catholic philosophy. Without a philosophy to direct your actions they are indeed futile and misdirected.”
Day believed all Catholics should study. She didn't write to academics, lawyers, or politicians. She wrote to farmworkers and factory laborers. She had in mind the unemployed and hungry, the poor who came to The Catholic Worker’s offices daily for soup. She wrote her community in New York’s streets and commended them to learn.
Day continued:
Take the Daily Worker, the Communist newspaper—you can get it at any newsstand in New York (and we don't care if we are boosting the circulation of the paper by this advice either. As a matter of fact, one issue of the paper should last you a long time). Study the Communist criticism of the present system. What is the Catholic criticism? What remedies do the Communists offer? What is the Catholic solution?
And then, after demonstrating her reading suggestions on a few articles, she set down her principal point:
If you study Communist theory and practice, and Catholic theory and practice, and then uphold the latter, you will be doing a constructive piece of work in combating the materialist philosophy of the present day. You cannot uphold the Catholic program without influencing others. You cannot talk of Catholic principles without putting them into practice.
I've thought a lot about that passage. It still makes sense. I think Day’s words still challenge us today.
Reading: What, How, and Why
I read a lot for work (I know, as my students once said, "weird flex"). But I usually love my ridiculous reading load. I'm a PhD Fellow in American Studies at the University of Oslo, working to be an environmental historian. I’m also a practicing Catholic, but more on that in a minute. Over the course of a week, I may read an environmental history one day, I’ll open a book on American evangelicals and business the next, and I'm puzzled by a writer’s demand for global governance to fight the coronavirus a few days later.
Weekly, usually, I happily remember this is my job. It’s also great fun. I'll often finish a book and process it aloud with my wife while we make dinner. She'll share thoughts that connect to a book she's working through. They’re great moments.
Some Catholics may question, with words or expressions, why I read what I read. If the author is promoting communism to fight climate change, using gender to critique video games, or environmental feminist ethics to fight factory farming, where does a Catholic start? Why spend limited bandwidth reading books we likely disagree with? What do we gain?
A lot, actually! Often against all expectations I'm persuaded—floored, even—by a book's evidence and argument. Other times I disagree, as with global government writers, but still appreciate their critiques. I find many thinkers to be fantastic jackhammers. I see the world better after they crack through my synaptic sediments. Those writers are gifts.
I am convinced Catholics should read across ideologies. Day agreed. When economic turmoil, social inequality, political polarization, stress, anxiety, and doubt split the 1930s, Day suggested reading and talking to intelligent people outside our Catholic camp because they diagnosed pressing problems and offered solutions. For example, Day wrote:
Perhaps some of [your neighbors] are Communists. You can acknowledge to them that their criticism of the present order is just and this may lead to further discussion which will clarify your mind and theirs.
Day wasn’t interested in owning or cancelling anyone. She believed communists’ materialism was inadequate, but she knew ideologically and theologically opposed parties could still be constructive neighbors. Catholics had an informed, public role to play in that conversation. We still do.
About That Name
Ascending has many connotations: climbers ascend mountains, graceful folks ascend stairs, my once-favorite scifi show had characters ascend to higher levels of being, Jesus ascended to heaven. The word implies movement, newness, and achievement, passage from lower to higher.
Everyone has stacks of books. We want to read the stacks, have been told those books are important, but there they sit like mountains in our offices and living rooms. And like mountains, these stacks are imposing. They demand something of us. They dare us to ascend the heights they represent.
So let’s ascend some bookstacks.
How This Works
Format: this newsletter lives on Substack. It does not have a Twitter presence or a Facebook page. Starting next week, I will write a review that reflects on a book or long article each Thursday morning, and each Friday morning I will send a link-drop to stories and articles I appreciated that week and hope you will enjoy too.
I love this Substack model. I get news and commentary from about a dozen folks on here and it’s my favorite way to get thoughtful content. You don’t have to wade through the infinite scroll to find what you’re hoping for. Here, the good stuff comes to you. You read it at your leisure in the cozy convenience of your inbox. It’s delightful.
Topics: these will vary a lot! Historians and technologists, theologians and economists, philosophers and athletes, social scientists and artists will all eventually find their way into our reading list. They all have something to teach us. As a historian, I tend to favor readings that engage with the past. But history is also a practice of reading texts as evidence, a method to support arguments, and a path to understand our world. Everything has a history, many things are history, and the works presented here will usually grapple with history as past and praxis. Some readings will be new, some old, some short and some long. All of them are good to think with. As for particular topics, I read a lot about environments, labor, technology, culture, and religion, and I’m always open to recommendations!
Disclaimer 1: I’m not writing from a place of authority. I do read books and I am a historian. But while I try to think about texts’ relationships to life, I have not consistently read the way I’m suggesting now, the way Day suggested. I want to, though. I want to expand that practice, explore new ways of reading, and I invite you to do the same.
Disclaimer 2: I have talked a bit about being Catholic. My first graduate school mentor often said that, because we all see the world from our own particular personal and cultural grounds, no one can be truly objective. But, he would continue, we can—must—still try to bridge and engage with the personal, cultural, and philosophical grounds of others. It's crucial we identify our starting points and build from there. That’s how society works. That’s especially how a democracy works. More importantly that’s how we live together as neighbors.
My starting point, then, is (or should be!) my life as a Catholic. If you have a different starting point, that's great! This is not a sectarian newsletter and my reviews aren’t strictly “Catholic.” I’m writing posts from the perspective of one Catholic who is also a historian, reading as a specialist in his own field, an interested observer of other fields, and a Catholic working out his salvation. Any flaws are mine. If you have a different interpretation, if you flat-out disagree, if you think I’m mistaken, or if you agree, then let's talk about it in the comments!
Disclaimer 3: this isn’t a partisan newsletter. The end.
Let’s follow Day’s lead. Let's "study abstract principles ... with some definite end in view." Let’s discover ideas and contemplate their role in our world. Let’s hit the books.
See you next week.
Hey Sam, I am also super excited to have some great conversations about the readings!
Thanks, Sam!