The Theater and the Mass.

Ex-Atheist Leah Libresco reviews Gary Wills' "Why Priests?"

Wills sees the pomp and circumstance of church as drawing our attention away from the God who became Man and directing it towards just one particular man, swathed in robes and standing front stage center. But when an actor puts on costuming and grease- paint, she does it to become someone else, both to the audience and to herself. A director I worked with once told me to start working on a show by getting different shoes, or, failing that, by putting a pebble in mine during rehearsals—anything to set this space off from ordinary life.

A priest doesn’t vest to draw attention to himself, but to what he does. In vestments, priests become a little anonymous. The sacraments work ex opere operato, from the work done, not the merits of the person carrying it out. The ornate robes tell us what work the priest is prepared to do, just as oxygen tanks and helmets mark out firefighters.

The uniform of a first responder is functional and battered. But Wills is correct to note that vestments are superfluously beautiful. They are more than seems necessary, more than we would ask for ourselves. They are meant to remind us of grace.

The Sacraments, which are (primarily, but not exclusively) administered by priests, are outward signs of inward grace. A sinner may be forgiven without the sacrament of reconciliation; the ritual is, to a certain extent, superfluous. Ritual doesn’t limit the ways God can act in the world, but it expands humans’ ability to understand or address the Infinite.

The Geekist Way.

Eve Tushnet interviews Leah Libresco.

Also, here is the Unbelievable show on Leah Libresco's conversion from atheism to Catholicism.

Three points.

First, the atheist interlocutor is clearly outmatched by Leah with respect to philosophy.

Second, it's amusing how both the atheist and the host Justin Brierly are, well gobsmacked, by the idea that Leah would choose Catholicism with its rules and weirdo beliefs about transubstantiation.

Third, Leah seems totally comfortable with being a geek.

There's a lot of territory that Leah has to cover before she becomes Catholic.

Pray for her.

Why is there so much coverage on Leah Libresco's conversion from atheism to Catholicism?

Obviously, for the popular media, this kind of thing goes against the narrative, which just shows how insular the media really is. Libresco's conversion is not unique, nor is it the first time that a well known atheist blogger quit Team Atheist and signed up with Team Catholic. For that matter, there is a regular conveyor belt that takes atheists from Plato to Aristotle to Aquinas to Catholicism. See Mortimer Adler, J. Budziszewski and a host of bloggers.

The Anchoress writes about the media coverage:

Why so much coverage on Leah? Perhaps the answer is this: Leah’s conversion goes against all of the prevailing narratives that dominate secularist thinking. Religion — or at least religion that goes beyond affirming oneself and actually costs something of one — is the “opiate of the masses” suited only to “bitter clingers” and intellectually-dim peasants (except it isn’t and never was); Leah is a brainy, sophisticated Yalie who is neither bitter, clingy nor dim. Catholicism “hates women” (except it doesn’t and never did) and Leah is a strongly self-possessed, forward-thinking woman. Catholicism “hates homosexual persons” (except it doesn’t and never has although a new apostolic letter might help make that clear) and Leah identifies as bi-sexual.

Wait a second…hold on, I think I’ve got it! Really smart…female…bi-sexual-identifying. Holy smokes! Leah Libresco has pulled off a narrative-busting Trifecta! She’s a secularist thoroughbred who has nevertheless won the Triple Crown of Cultural Incongruity!

No wonder the press is so interested in Leah Libresco. What a thoroughly odd puzzle she must be, to them. And if she had to become a Christian, why not at least an Episcopalian, which is and always has been, the acceptable church of the elite? Why must she mess with narratives and perceptions like some kind of Plato-mystic canoodler?