Powerless Church and Other Selected Writings, 1955- 1985

Ivan Illich (1926-2002) was one of the most original social and religious thinkers of the 20 th Century. Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1951, he became an advocate of a “new Church” and a critic of the existing form of the Roman Church which he called “a giant that begins to totter before it collapses.” The novelty of his ideas antagonized conservative forces in the Church, and he ended the controversy his advocacy had stirred up at the Vatican by announcing in 1969 that he would suspend the exercise of his priesthood and proceed, in future, “as a simple faithful Christian.” There followed a sequence of five books, beginning with 1970’s Celebration of Awareness, calling for “institutional revolution,” or sometimes “cultural revolution.” Industrial institutions, from education (Deschooling Society) to medicine (Limits to Medicine), Illich wrote, were crossing a threshold into “counter-productivity,” a condition in which they would get in their own way and defeat their own purposes He also suggested that crucial personal and cultural competencies were being lost to growing professional and institutional predominance.When the institutional revolution Illich proposed did not take place, he turned to the study of history in an attempt to unearth the roots of the “certainties” that had prevented reform. In books like Shadow Work, Gender and In the Vineyard of the Text, he explored how modern civilization took shape and tried, as he once said, to “observe the emergence of those assumptions which, by going unexamined, have turned into today’s certainties.” (Ivan Illich in Conversation, pp. 134-135). In his last years, Illich also began to speak and write about the role of the Christian Church in the formation of the modern West, putting forward the idea that the unique features of modernity are only explainable as a perverse mutation of Christian inspiration. “When I look for the roots of modernity,” he said, “I find them in the attempts of the churches to institutionalize, legitimize and manage Christian vocation” (The Rivers North of the Future, p. 48).

“Ivan Illich was one of the most interesting thinkers of the twentieth century, profound and incapable of being pigeonholed. In this collection of writings one can trace the connection between Illich’s radical critiques of bureaucratic, managerial modes of production in both church and state and his deep spiritual sense that vulnerability to God and to other people is necessary for a life that is truly alive. Illich’s thought and spirit remain surprisingly relevant in the current cultural context.”—William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict“Ivan Illich breaks through the haze of contemporary humanism and unabashedly affirms ‘the autonomy of the ludicrous in face of the useful’ and the ‘spontaneous as opposed to the rationalized and planned.’ Carefully read these idiosyncratic essays: they are a bracing antidote to your cherished ways of seeing—and living.”—Jerry Brown, former governor of California“We tend to normalize the teaching of the Gospels, but then someone like Ivan Illich comes along and shows us how radical it is. This collection offers a series of reminders of Illich’s ability to surprise us and wrench us out of the ruts that our thinking easily slides into. Whether it is about the Kingdom, virginity, or death, and whether we agree or not, Illich’s insights open up new avenues of understanding.”—Charles Taylor, author of Multiculturalism and “The Politics of Recognition”“This collection is full of such sage wisdom, and not only about death. It is assembled by the competent and committed hands of Valentina Borremans and Sajay Samuel, and sharply addresses the shortcomings of the Catholic Church to which Illich remained committed, and the church’s complicated cultural embeddedness and expansion in the 20th century. It develops prophetic-like analyses of how the church can regain, especially in Latin America, its sense of pride in a radical balance of independence and unity.”—Jason W. Alvis, Reading Religion