Test Everything: Hold Fast to What Is Good

I can contribute four points.1. The book is a collection of very brief chapters, which can be read independently of each other.2. The author, Cardinal George Pell, was convicted about a year ago, early 2019, by an Australian court on charges of a horrible crime of homosexual rape of two teenagers, and as far as I know is still in prison.3. He was falsely charged and falsely convicted, according to all the believable public evidence taken all in all. The crime could not have happened. See "Evidence against George Pell" on YouTube, uploaded by Gerry De naro; this is a talk by Alan Jones on Australian television. Jones states the matter well.4. But Jones fails to make an important point about Pell: who his unknown enemies may well have been. Pell had recently had a prominent roll in attempts to make operations of the Vatican Bank more transparent and more resistant to money laundering, in particular by the Italian Calabrian Mafia, which has operations all over the world and is fantastically wealthy. Pell was assigned this job by Pope Francis and was taking it seriously. This apparently did not please everybody.The book was written before these more recent events and does not refer to them. It does tell us something about whom a notable miscarriage of justice has put in prison in a civilized country, but the book was always very interesting in its own right.

George Cardinal Pell has produced an excellent, timely book for Catholics of all ages based on a brilliant statement from Saint Paul: "Test Everything: hold fast to what is good; abstain from evil" (1 Thes 5:21). Read all of 1 Thessalonians 5 to put this advice in context. The short chapters are grouped into 8 categories and can be read independently. For example, section 2 contains key Old Testament homilies given by Cardinal Pell. Scripture references are included.Covering a wide range of subjects of interest to Catholics, this book is easy to read and highly recommended.

This is one of the most refreshingly good intellectual works I have seen lately on the Church confronting modernistic society. Cardinal Pell is a brilliant cleric, and does well to inspire Catholics, in and outside of Australia, to stand up for what is true and right- namely our faith. He indirectly addresses what has resulted in a modern day existential crisis in modern Catholic thought, one that doesn't attract young minds to Catholicism. He sets the record straight. I would highly recommend this book.

The man is a living saint! I'll read anything he's written.

Have really enjoyed this book. Read it on my break at work since it is easy to do in small bites. Always find myself learning something new or looking at something in a different way. Definitely recommend it.

I love this book by Cardinal Pell. It gives you a wide range of thoughts on the "First Things" of life" in a way that is fresh and original.

Excellent book - Cardinal Pell is a gem

In this series of talks, homilies and essays, Cardinal George Pell expresses some of his views, and one gets good insight into his theological thought.George Pell, for better or worse, is a high-profile public figure in the Australian Catholic Church and also Australia generally. I will not discuss the current issues relating to legal proceedings against him, or the Royal Commission discussions, since I dealt with those elsewhere (in my review of 'Cardinal' by ABC Journalist Louise Mulligan). My aim here is not to judge Pell, but simply to review the ideas expressed in this book.It is clear from reading Pell's meditations in this book he is a good writer and coherent thinker. Pell dodges many of the fallacies I see in more mediocre works of Christian and Catholic apologetics, and often reading these is a breath of fresh air. Like Cardinal Newman and Tim Fischer (the current Catholic Archbishop of Sydney), his essays are well-thought out and composed, and one has to agree with Pell on many points. Some areas of common ground I see with Pell include: a) A greater sense of purpose, attentiveness and clarity in what Catholics are doing when they go to Mass, b) The need for people to be well-informed and intelligent in their faith, c) The need to not dismiss the quest for truth, meaning and the intelligibility of things as simply meaningless or a cultural construct due to class, race or gender, d) The obvious need for a strong Christian and Catholic presence in public life, without compromising genuine values or sinking into blind fundamentalism and fanaticism, e) The need for credible Catholic institutions to help form the clergy, laity and intellectual elements of Catholicism (such as schools, institutes, seminaries, religious institutions, hospitals, etc) and serving the community without being sectarian, and f) the vital role the church's traditions, such as the faith in a Trinue God, the Nicene Creed, and other elements play in the life of Christians, which can't simply be dismissed out of hand. Pell also offers several useful meditations on scripture and Biblical themes, and does a surprisingly good job of relating them to contemporary issues.Unfortunately, I feel in this book, Pell tends to lean too much towards the 'Benedict Option/Augustinian' style of Christianity where there is a temptation to regard the Catholic Church as the sole and only repository of goodness and truth. Cardinal Pell in my view is too quick to praise or defend certain traditions or ideas in the church (such as clerical celibacy, the ban on contraception, the need to obey legitimate authority, and a fairly strict reading of Papal Authority), too slow to recognise the dangers and problems of clericalism in the church, and has too much of a bleak view of the outside world. Pell in many essays is quick to condemn 'The World' (meaning generally Western or Australian non-Catholic culture) and its values and fails to see the good that often exists in people of good-will outside of the folds of the church. Pell's tendency to be tendentious at times in his black and white views about what is good and bad, right and wrong, orthodox and not, leave out the complexity and nuances that need to be taken into account when dealing with complex problems. Pell often made for a good sound-bite on the media when he said something controversial, but when one observed him debating someone like Richard Dawkins, the whole thing showed more 'heat' than light.My second problem with Pell's approach is that it is too theological. Theology is a good thing, but in the Catholic Church, too many issues or problems are simply dealt with using abstract doctrines, deductive systems and propositions. In my view, this is the cause of many (perhaps most) of the Catholic Church's many problems, where too many people equate Papal Infallibility with some set of theological arguments or propositions that are stated in some document or by a Bishop, Roman congregation or someone else and then treated as if they were the laws of Moses handed down on a mountain. This is particularly the case in some aspects of the church's moral teaching, canon law and liturgical rubrics, which have been interpreted increasingly as if they were akin to theorems in Euclidian geometry or calculus, being absolutely univocally clear, true and certain with absolutely no room to move or doubt. This quasi-mathematical theology reminds me of the irony in that while the church put Descartes on the Index for two or three centuries, it pretty much borrowed his method of stating everything knowable in terms of 'clear and distinct' truths which could not be doubted by any mind and had to compel assent. Pell's mindset, much like that of John Paul II, Benedict, and many of their supporters and appointees, seemed to work in this 'mathematical' and 'deductive' manner, no matter what the pastoral realities were. I feel this was a key case of what Lonergan called 'Scotosis' or intellectual blindness, which like a cataract, blinded Pell and others like him from the pastoral problems which the deductive, theological and dogmatic approach he takes here and elsewhere did nothing to solve. Those who didn't fit into such schemas were often the target of the anger and criticism of Pell and those like him, and 'Traditionalist' Catholics seem to be the ones today determined to carry on this task.Even with these reservations, 'Test Everything is a surprisingly good read, and hopefully will help improve the intellectual quality of Christian discourse in Australia, which too often seems to fall into bland 'relativism' of 'She'll be right, mate' at the cost of ignoring the need for the truth, rationality, the beautiful and the good to inform our culture and decision-making.

This book is a collection of homilies or short essays/talks on various themes we all grapple with in life, in this modern world. Cardinal Pell is a fine pastor and shepherd, with a superb intellect which he wears lightly and expresses in a way that is accessible, clear and approachable and respects the reader/listener - always. It's a rare and subtle gift. He has a way of speaking honestly and reaching the minds and hearts, I think particularly of young people, of anyone who is searching for the truth in the chaos and pressure of this age. He is unafraid - I think this was his chosen motto as a cardinal or bishop, 'Be not afraid' - and strangely I find myself missing someone I have never met, as he died over a year ago. He is so clear and lucid and I can see why people call him a prince of the Church. His life was a blessing. He was exonerated of the charges against him, indeed he was persecuted and scapegoated in his trial according to the factual evidence. I wish he had written more, as he is a fine thinker, writer and pastor indeed. RIP George Cardinal Pell.