The Way of Heaven and Earth: From Either/Or to the Catholic Both/And

A crisis of polarization more and more threatens the future of civilization. Whether it’s philosophy, theology, politics, or culture, we find ourselves falling into stark either/or dilemmas: Religion or science? Conservative or liberal? Faith or works? We can’t help but choose one idea at the expense of the other, falling into zero-sum games, mutual extremes, and the endless division of human life. In The Way of Heaven and Earth, Matthew Becklo offers a way of interpreting this crisis: Christ and “the Catholic both/and.” Framing our greatest dilemmas as “heaven-earth dilemmas”—choices between God or man, God’s place or man’s place, the spiritual or the physical, or the spirit or the flesh—Becklo shows that our greatest hope for overcoming our divisions is in Christ, who is “the Way of heaven and earth,” and the Catholic Church, which is the fullness of the Way. With the help of Scripture, Catholic teaching, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and various philosophers, theologians, and artists, The Way of Heaven and Earth finds new hope in this forgotten Way, which calls us into the paradoxes of the human journey. Read more