The Best Book on Italy
Every page drips Italy. Each paragraph peels another layer which exposes the deep darkness that the nation veils. The author consistently draws out my envy that I didn’t write it first. The book is a compilation of the eight years of our experience with this culture; at times we laugh with tears of first-hand knowledge and at times we cry with the same. Certainly, this book will be a required read for any future visitor that would join us in this land.
I’m speaking of the book entitled The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones. The author is a journalist by trade and, to this point, offers no solid confession of the revealed Faith. However, Jones is uncannily observant, simply descriptive, and brutally honest about the Italian culture.
As I read through the book, I will share insights here on the webjournal. If you would like to have a powerful look into an untouched nation, buy the book. It will help you intercede for more than 60 million people.
Here are the opening lines to the Foreword and some commentary:
“Travellers, without exception,” wrote Stendhal in 1824, “are wont to confine their descriptions of Italy to the realm of the inanimate; their portraits concern only the monuments, the sites, the sublime manifestations of nature in that happy land.” Even today, this is still very much the case. People talk or write about Italy because they are obsessed by the age, the beauty, and the hedonism of the country, by the Roman ruins, the Renaissance art, by a favourite duomo or palazzo. Visitors flock toward cathedrals and canals…
In other words, the shroud is not only in Turin. I guess we can’t blame the traveller who wants that inanimate “experience.” But I do think that we here should come to expect more from the Christian traveller to this land. We’re not speaking of more historical knowledge of the country (although that definitely wouldn’t hurt). When we say that we are coming to expect more, we mean to say more spiritual discernment. Eyes of the believer-priest should be able to see beyond the facade (almost everything about Italy is a facade; a wanton superficiality) and know that a nation is not made up of its shopping, its vistas, or its cuisine. Rather, our encouragement is for our steady stream of visitors (and our church) to assume the weight of the shroud and intercede with fervency for a trapped people. Italy’s monies want you to see the romantic outdoor cafes with tastes of cappuccino, but Italy’s devils prohibit you to see its curses and spiritual fortresses. We cry for more believer-priests to see the latter and call upon the Spirit of Freedom with us.
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