Jennifer Fitz over at Riparians at the Gate has written a very nice “pre-review” of my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew:

My new Catholic Company review book arrived yesterday, and I’m tearing through it.  Super good.  It’s Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew by Eric Sammons.

–> Whose blog, The Divine Life, is the one I click on in my feed reader second, right after Dr. Boli.   So I guess I should have known that I would like the book, but somehow with the title and Eric’s smartness and all that, I thought it would be too difficult for me, or sort of dry, or something like that.   I thought this  because I am pretty stupid that way.

Not boring at all.  Not one bit.  Eminently readable, no big words so far (I’m on p. 74), and the chapters are short, too.   Just plain enjoyable.  But jam-packed solid good.  You know I have no patience for touchy-feely watery blathery stuff.

Continue reading…

Thanks, Jennifer!

I recently sent my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew to a member of the Sisters of Life, and she writes,

We got your new book!! It’s phenomenal! Everyone was so excited to read it when we opened the package that rather than reading it one at a time, we are reading it at table each morning at breakfast. Today we read about the incomplete perceptions of thinking Jesus was Elijah or Jeremiah. I am learning so much! Thank you for all of the effort of study, research and prayer that went into writing this book. And thank you for donating it to the community. It is SOO good and very engaging. I don’t want it to end! I will definitely recommend it to others.

One of the things on my “to do” list today is look up the word “milquetoast”. It was in this morning’s chapter and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. See, I’m learning about Jesus and learning new vocabulary words at all the same time! Thanks Eric!

Having a group of religious sisters read your book at table – talk about an intimidating situation for an author! I hope and pray that the sisters grow deeper in their love and knowledge of our Lord through this exercise.

If there is any other religious community out there that wants a copy of my book, I’ll be happy to send them one free of charge. Just email me to let me know.

It has been announced that the archbishop of my home diocese of Washington, DC – Archbishop Donald Wuerl – has been named a Cardinal! Congratulations Cardinal-designate Wuerl!

And, in a bit of shameless self-promotion, I will now be able to say that my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew has been endorsed by a prince of the Church!

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his reflections on the 2008 Synod on the Word of God, taught us that “Coming into communion with the Word of God, we enter a communion of the Church that lives the Word of God.”  Eric Sammons’ reflections examine the titles and names given to Jesus by those who knew him, as recorded in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  Drawing on his own faith journey and his personal experience, Eric Sammons demonstrates how the lived Word of God — reflected in the lives and writings of the saints and prayers of the Church — of both the East and West — can help us to better know Jesus and to strive to form our daily lives into his likeness. Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew is a work of devotion and readers should find it both inspiring and encouraging.
— Cardinal-designate Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D., Archbishop of Washington

Let us all remember to pray fervently for Cardinal-designate Wuerl and all the new Cardinals of the Church. May they always lead us faithfully to Jesus.

Today is the feast of St. Theresa of Avila, the great doctor of prayer. If you are serious about prayer – and you can’t be a Christian without being serious about prayer – and you don’t know where to start, then I recommend to you her classic work The Way of Perfection. This simple book emphasizes the importance of prayer and that perseverance is the most important virtue when it comes to prayer. She writes,

Those who want to journey on this road and continue until they reach the end, which is to drink from this water of life…they must have a great and very resolute determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they don’t have courage for the trials that are met, or if the whole world collapses. (The Way of Perfection 21.2)

Commenting on this passage in my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew, I wrote,

Perseverance is a prerequisite for being a Christian; without it, we become like the seed that cannot take root in the soil (cf. Mt 13:1-8). Instead, we must strive to plant ourselves deep in the soil of the Word of God, gaining strength to withstand temptation, persecution, and tribulation; and not only to withstand them, but to grow a “hundredfold” in the faith.

The model of perseverance is Jesus, who from the beginning knew the mission of his Father and would not be deterred from it: neither the flattery of the crowds, nor the pressure from his own disciples, nor the threats from the religious and political leaders could change his course. He persevered through every hardship and temptation. It’s a mistake, however, to believe that following the Father was easy for Christ because he was the divine Son of God. The agony Jesus experienced in Gethsemane (cf. Mt 26:36-46) puts to rest any thought that accomplishing the Father’s will was not a struggle for him; it is no less a struggle for each Christian to fulfill the Father’s will for their lives.

The perseverance needed during great trials is born of forbearance in everyday hardships. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23 emphasis added). Every day, we can experience martyrdom through all the slight instances of suffering each day brings: enduring the small offenses of others, denying our personal desires for the sake of the good of family or friends, and serving others in small daily, perhaps unseen, tasks. These actions, the fruit of a persistent life of prayer and devotion, are what make possible the ability to stand strong in the face of overwhelming opposition.

“You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much” (Mt 25:21), Christ said to the man with five talents. By dying to self in small, everyday affairs, we gain strength to die to self in times of great persecution and strife. When everyone else preaches conformity to the world and its passions, the Christian continues to be founded on the Word of God, Jesus Christ. When worn down by the temptations of this world, we who desire to be saints must turn to Christ and ask for a share in the perseverance the Lord had in following the Father’s will.

If you don’t pray regularly, start today! And persevere!

I am very happy to announce that my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew is now available. I am especially pleased that the official publication date is September 30th, the feast of the great Scripture scholar St. Jerome.

You can purchase my book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, my publisher, Aquinas and More Catholic store, or you can buy a signed copy from my website. Most authors ask that you buy it directly from them because then they make more money on the sale, but I would prefer if you purchase it from Amazon or another online store if you don’t want a signed copy. Since I would like as many people as possible to come to know Christ more deeply through reading this book, purchasing it from an online store like Amazon helps promote the book more readily on their site, which then allows it to reach more people. (I’m assuming, of course, that you don’t have a local Catholic bookstore available. If that is the case, go there and ask for it). No matter where you buy it, I would appreciate a review on Amazon if you could and please consider recommending it to your friends and family.

To whet your appetite, you can download the Foreword by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. as well as my Introduction.

This book has been a long time coming – I signed the contract with OSV almost two years ago – and I’ve written about it on this blog a number of times. Here are a few of my posts so you can get a feel for the book:

How my book “Who is Jesus Christ?” came about

Scriptural references in “Who is Jesus Christ?”

Church Fathers and Saints references in “Who is Jesus Christ?”

Watch a marketing video for the book

Buy your copy today!

Two important announcements regarding Catholic radio:

1) I’ll be starting a weekly series on the Son Rise Morning Show this Thursday at 7:00am. I’ll be going through the title given to Jesus as found in the Gospel of Matthew (in other words, I’ll be going through the chapters of my book).

2) The Catholic radio station here in DC – Guadalupe Radio Network – is holding a Radiothon this week and desperately needs your support! Catholic radio has a great impact on an area, but it cannot stay on the air without financial support from listeners. I’ll be on the air today at 2pm talking about the importance of Catholic radio.

Please consider giving to this wonderful station – you can donate online at their website. (Also, the Radiothon means my segment tomorrow on the Son Rise Morning Show be preempted locally).

Pray for the growth of Catholic radio throughout the country!

Amazon now has available a “look inside” of my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew. If you click on the book cover on its Amazon page, you will be able to read the complete Foreword, Introduction and many pages of the text itself.

If you are like me and like to print out texts for reading later, I am making both the Foreword and Introduction available for free download in PDF format (there are also links in the right sidebar):

Foreword to Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R.

Introduction to Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew

The book should be shipping within the next 2-3 weeks!

It is an interesting time to be an author. By “interesting,” I mean exciting/scary/confusing/revolutionary. All of this excitement/fear/confusion/revolution centers around modern technologies, which are changing the face of reading and publishing. There are two main effects that this technology is having on the industry:

1) Ease of publication: now anyone can cheaply “publish” a book, meaning that they can bind paper together in a nice format, or they can put their book on a e-reader device. What used to be a barrier to entry no longer exists.

2) E-Reading: reading doesn’t have to involve paper anymore. Now we can read on our computers, our phones, our iPads, our Kindles and a whole host of other devices. I have mentioned previously that most people erroneously believe that e-reading is just the next step in reading that everyone will eventually take, but there is no question that e-reading is a major factor in the publishing world now.

So what does this all mean? Some are claiming that old-school publishers are dinosaurs no longer needed in the 21st century. Others believe that the low barrier to entry means that readers need some form of filter to distinguish the wheat from the chaff and therefore traditional publishers are still very much needed. Either way, authors need to be more than just good writers these days; they need to be savvy about all the options available to them when it comes to publishing.

I tend to believe that traditional publishers are still quite necessary, but that they do have to adapt better to modern trends. The dirty little fact of self-publishing is that most of it is crap that the author’s mother wouldn’t even want to read. Most people recognize this and so they put their faith in established publishing companies to find the truly well-written works out there (and they realize that those publishing companies improve those works by their editing staff). But there are very good books hidden among the self-published masses, and some people have been very successful with self-publishing.

But one trend which most publishing companies have resisted is the trend of making more and more writing available for free. Due to the free nature of content on the Internet, most people have become more and more accustomed to paying nothing for something. They don’t mind paying for a book if they think it worthwhile, but they are often unwilling to do so “sight unseen” – they want to be able to at least read some of it first (this is why I got Our Sunday Visitor to agree to allow me to offer the Foreword and Introduction to my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew available as a free download – more details coming soon). Too many publishers, however, feel like the content of their books are not to be tasted until full admission has been paid.

Self-publishing has its place in the publishing world, but only in very specific instances. The authors most likely to be successful in self-publishing are those who already have built a following for their works through traditional publishing means (for example, if J.K. Rowling decided to self-publish a book, you don’t think it would fail, do you?), and also have the ability to pay others to edit their works (almost no author can self-edit – it is just an affliction of the trade). These trusted names do not need the engine of traditional publishers to drive them to success – but such people are few and far between.

That being said, traditional publishing houses must become more adept at not only following the trends in publishing, but setting them. They need to realize that there has been a seismic shift in the publishing world and their continued success depends on remaining in front of it. The world of books would become a chaotic place indeed if traditional publishers were to disappear, so here’s hoping that they can succeed in the 21st century.

I spoke to Our Sunday Visitor recently and my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew is currently at the printers. They expect to receive it by around September 15th, at which time they will send me my copies. So if you have already ordered the book from me (thank you!), I’ll send it out as soon as I get it. If you haven’t ordered yet, you can do so now and you’ll also receive it as soon as it is available.

If you ordered from Amazon, I assume that they will be shipping it shortly after the 15th as well.

I recently created a short video describing my new book, “Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew.” To be honest, dealing with actors can be such a pain – they complain about their working conditions, they constantly claim that “union rules” don’t allow them to work more than a few minutes at a time, and they don’t follow the director’s vision. I think it ended up okay, but see for yourself:

Today is the anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential Scripture scholars who ever lived: Rudolf Bultmann. Bultmann’s impact on the theological world cannot be underestimated; if you pick up just about any scholarly work on Scripture or Christology written in the past fifty years, there is a very good chance that Bultmann’s name will be mentioned.

Bultmann’s greatest influence was in advocating for a complete split between history and faith (see my post yesterday about this subject). He advocated “demythologizing” the New Testament by stripping it of any supernatural content, thus discovering the true history behind it. Actually, he claimed that the Gospels were not even historical documents, but merely the proclamation of the message of the early Christian community. Even though not all the specifics of Bultmann’s teachings are accepted in modern scholarship, his underlying presuppositions and assumptions still rule the world of Scripture scholarship and Christology.

One of the primary purposes of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth series is to combat the work of Bultmann and his followers; in fact, the pope directly addresses Bultmann and his arguments numerous times in the first volume of Jesus of Nazareth. Pope Benedict recognizes that true faith and history are not in opposition, but instead that the Christian faith is founded on real historical events. Another critic of Bultmann’s false separation has been Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. I was humbled when Fr. Benedict considered my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew, which uses modern scholarship but is not a scholarly work, as one small contribution in combating the false presuppositions and conclusions of Bultmann. Fr. Benedict writes in the Foreword:

Beginning with the pope himself, the effort to present the faithful with an adequate picture of Christ is well underway. It is an effort well supported by Eric Sammons. I hope that in years to come, he will follow this book up with later volumes on the other evangelists. I also hope that we will see more and more books like this, intelligent and erudite, yet accessible, on our Divine Savior and his life and personality. It is time to reject and reverse the influence of writers like Rudolf Bultmann, who dismantled the picture of Christ, leaving us only with remnants. In the place of such destruction we now have books like Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew — books that rebuild or, rather, reveal anew the true picture of Christ.

We must always remember that our Christian Faith is not founded on myths in some pre-historic past, but on the historical and reliable witness of the first followers of Christ.

This sounds a bit like the old standard, “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” But of course the answer to many people today is no longer the obvious one: the apostle Matthew.

I have studied the issue of the authorship of the New Testament books for over a decade now, and my own thoughts on the matter have varied over the years. When I was an Evangelical Christian, I unthinkingly accepted the traditional authorship of all the NT books – Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew, Paul wrote the epistles which bear his name, etc. However, a few years after becoming Catholic and studying the issue more in-depth, I began to accept the scholarly consensus: that many NT books, including all of the Gospels except perhaps Luke, were not written by the traditionally-accepted author. After resting on that opinion for a few years, I then revisited the debate and the more I studied the issue, the less confident I grew in the “established” scholarship. So much of it, on further analysis, was based on false presuppositions and wild assumptions. Then, when I was writing my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew (available for pre-order now!), the issue came up again, as I had to decide if I was going to assume that the apostle Matthew was the author of this Gospel or not.

Ultimately, I have stuck to my final conclusion: I find that there is no reason not to accept the apostle Matthew as the author of the Gospel of Matthew. I don’t hold this as 100% scientifically provable, but no scholarly argument convinces me otherwise. In fact, I find many of the hypotheses posited for non-Matthean authorship to require a great deal more faith than just recognizing the apostle as the author. Furthermore, most of the arguments advanced in favor of authorship by a “Matthean community” (which never seems to include Matthew himself) rests on extreme speculation which has no empirical evidence.

I do believe it is quite possible that the Gospel as we have it today is not in every word exactly like the one that Matthew himself wrote. In fact, it is an ancient tradition that Matthew wrote his Gospel originally in “Hebrew” (most likely Aramaic) and then it was later translated into Greek. This process of translation, as well as the process of copying and distribution, might very well have edited the product which Matthew wrote. But, on a whole, the Gospel reflects the writing of Matthew himself (an aside: I also reject the Mark-Q two-source hypothesis and believe that Matthew was the first Gospel written, but I won’t get into that here).

But how important is authorship? As Catholics, we believe that the NT books are inspired by God and canonical because the Church led by the Holy Spirit has declared them to be so. And this belief is not founded on authorship. In other words, if Matthew didn’t write the Gospel that bears his name, it would still be an inspired writing and part of the New Testament. So authorship is not essential to the value of the text. However, most advocates of rejecting the traditional attributions of authorship also subscribe to many problematic presuppositions. For example, many of them reject that the words attributed to Jesus were actually said by Christ himself. Instead, they were inventions of the later Christian community. Obviously, if a first-hand witness like Matthew actually wrote his Gospel, these assumptions are much harder to sustain. But if the Gospel was instead written solely by a later Christian community, such a position becomes much more tenable, and can then lead to the denial of many Christian beliefs.

Therefore, I have seen no strong reason to reject the traditional consensus of the Church that the apostle Matthew is the author of the Gospel which bears his name. I do think the process in which this Gospel was produced was not as simple as Matthew merely writing exactly the Gospel we have today, but at the same time, the title “author” is a legitimate one for the former tax-collector.

I received the proofs for my book “Who is Jesus Christ?” yesterday, and I was happy to see that Our Sunday Visitor obtained an imprimatur for the work. An imprimatur (which is Latin for “I’m the bishop and I say that you really need to buy this book if you are a Catholic and if you don’t I might excommunicate you, and if you are not Catholic, you should still buy this book” or something like that) is not required for such a book as mine, but I felt it would be nice to have to make clear that nothing in the book is contrary to the Catholic Faith.

When I asked Fr. Benedict Groeschel to write the Foreword to my book, he told me an interesting story. An old friend of his, who was a Cardinal, was asked to write the Foreword to a friend’s book and he did gladly. However, he didn’t actually read the whole book and it ended up containing heresy. The Cardinal, needless to say, was mortified. Fr. Benedict said that because of that incident he never writes a Foreword or endorsement for a book without reading it entirely. I told him that if he did happen to find any heresy in my book, please tell me and we’ll trash the book immediately! Fortunately, “Who is Jesus Christ?” survived his close examination.

In two months my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew will be published by Our Sunday Visitor. A number of people have asked me where the idea for the book came from and why I ended up writing it.

Who is Jesus Christ? is the result of a personal bible study I did three years ago. In the summer of 2007, I was reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict, as well as a book on Origen, the first great Scripture scholar of the Church. In the Origen book, the author noted that Origen loved to contemplate the titles given to Jesus, such as “Son of God,” “Teacher,” and “Emmanuel.” He would meditate on these titles over and over and this would allow him to know Christ better. Our Lord is like a diamond which can be appreciated from a multitude of angles, each one deepening our love for different aspects of his person and work.

I thought this type of study sounded like a great idea, so I decided to start by meditating on the titles in Matthew, my favorite Gospel. I first found the twenty-five titles given to him in this Gospel and then reflected on them in light of their immediate context in Matthew’s Gospel, as well as the rest of Scripture and then also in the Church Fathers and the Church’s teachings through the centuries. I had no desire to invent my own meanings to these titles, but instead wished to see how those who came before us in the Faith understood them. I took notes along the way so that I could more deeply integrate what I was discovering.

Although I never directly used Jesus of Nazareth in my research, I found that my whole outlook was impacted by the Pope’s book, and by his other works on Jesus Christ and Scripture. After a month or two of study I was becoming more and more consumed with this project when my wife took the kids on a trip to visit family in Ohio. While they were away, I used all my free hours researching the titles of Christ in Matthew, and by the time I was finished I had compiled over 100 pages of handwritten notes.

It was at this time I began to think that this study might be useful to others and that it might make a good book. Of course, it is a big leap from personal study notes to a finished book, but I really believed that others could profit from my work and draw closer to Christ through it. So I began the slow process of “translating” the content of my notes to a readable format (with the immense help of my wife, the greatest editor on earth) and after two more years I had the book completed. Now I hope and pray that others will come to know Christ more deeply through this book as I did researching and writing it.

Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew will be published in September, although you can pre-order it now through Amazon or my own website.

Longtime readers of this blog know about my schizophrenic view of modern technology. On the one hand, I have been deeply involved in technology for over 15 years and I greatly appreciate its many benefits. I blog, I have a facebook page, and I see how technology helps to spread the Gospel in many ways. On the other hand, I recognize that these benefits do not come without a cost: increased access to pornography, a disconnect between people, and increased emphasis on consumption are just a few downsides to new technologies. As Catholics, we are to use technology for divine purposes, but we must be honest about the downsides as well.

One of the biggest potential downsides, and one I think often overlooked, is how use of the Internet changes the way we think. I have noticed in my own life that increased use of the Internet affects my thought processes, making them less focused and more “jittery.” It appears that my experience is not unique:

The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains

During the winter of 2007, a UCLA professor of psychiatry named Gary Small recruited six volunteers—three experienced Web surfers and three novices—for a study on brain activity. He gave each a pair of goggles onto which Web pages could be projected. Then he slid his subjects, one by one, into the cylinder of a whole-brain magnetic resonance imager and told them to start searching the Internet. As they used a handheld keypad to Google various preselected topics—the nutritional benefits of chocolate, vacationing in the Galapagos Islands, buying a new car—the MRI scanned their brains for areas of high activation, indicated by increases in blood flow.

The two groups showed marked differences. Brain activity of the experienced surfers was far more extensive than that of the newbies, particularly in areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with problem-solving and decisionmaking. Small then had his subjects read normal blocks of text projected onto their goggles; in this case, scans revealed no significant difference in areas of brain activation between the two groups. The evidence suggested, then, that the distinctive neural pathways of experienced Web users had developed because of their Internet use.

Continue reading…

The gist of this article is that the Web is increasing our brain’s ability to search and collect data, but it is also decreasing its ability to focus and do deep thinking. This is troubling on many levels, but it also could have serious implications for the spiritual life.

A few months ago, I wrote a multi-part series on The Nine Levels of Prayer. The first four levels of prayer are “ascetical prayer,” in which man is the initiator of prayer, not God. These levels include vocal prayer, meditation, affective prayer, and acquired recollection. These levels eventually lead one to the higher levels of prayer, such as contemplation, where the Holy Spirit initiates the prayer and leads the soul closer to God. But to get there, one typically needs to go through ascetical prayer, which means one needs to use his brain for focused, deep thinking. But what happens if the brain, through constant use of the Internet, no longer can do this type of thinking? Will we be able to pray as we ought?

This has not just been theoretical in my own life. Fr. Benedict Groeschel wrote in the Foreword to my book Who is Jesus Christ?:

I suggest that no one read this book quickly, for although it is not lengthy, it contains a great deal of information as well as many opportunities for prayer and meditation.  I also suggest that the reader delve into one chapter at a time, preferably with a copy of the Bible on hand.  Eric Sammons has not written the kind of book you can pick up and put down, simply picking up where you left off at some later time.  He has written instead a careful and thoughtful study that requires the reader to approach it with the same care with which it was written.

Fr. Benedict says that my book is not one to pick up and put down while reading, but it was also not one that I could pick up and put down while writing. I wrote the book originally as personal meditations, and much of it was composed while on retreat at a monastery, and the rest was done at libraries with my cell phone and laptop left at home. Not that I didn’t try to write elsewhere, but whenever I tried to write while sitting at my desk, I was unable to get anywhere: I simply cannot write reflections of any value if I have easy access to email or the Internet – I am too likely to be distracted and lose my focus.

This is one reason why one of my rules for the Internet includes #6: Take at least one day off a week from the Internet. If we are constantly “connected” then we run the risk of being disconnected in the spiritual life. We have to give ourselves the opportunities for focused attention on the Lord through prayer, lectio divina, and other spiritual practices. Otherwise, the focus of our lives will end up being Google, not God.