I read Iota Unum ten years ago now, and though I have forgotten much of it, it still stays with me as a truly sweeping and magisterial analysis of what has occured in the Church in the last fifty years. It is good that it is coming out from under the scorn that it has received as a "Lefebvrist" work.
I read *Iota Unum* about a year-and-a-half ago after running across one of Sandro Magister's earlier articles on Amerio. Radaelli is right to call the book "a very constructively Catholic reflection"; just as noteworthy as Amerio's sustained attacks on heresy are his crystal-clear arguments in defense of Catholic orthodoxy. Moreover, the author wrote in an extraordinarily clear, accessible style, which (regrettably) sets *Iota Unum* apart from many other examples of 20th century philosophy and theology. In any event, I, too, am glad to see signs of its gradual acceptance by the mainstream.
Iota Unum is, to justly engage the overused word, brilliant. One of those books to but vs. check out. As an example, his treatment of Paul VI and the recent obsession with Youth is simply a homerun, an d one of those things I at least would never have seen on my own.
Thanks for this post, a shot of optimism when I needed it. I may finally get to a point where, excuse my heresy, I actually trust the Pope!
It's not heretical to say that you don't trust the Pope. I wouldn't trust the average Renaissance pope with my youngest sister, and I wouldn't trust John Paul II to give a lecture on the nature of liturgy, just as I would not trust John XXII to preach on the beatific vision, as the Parisian theologians showed us. Rational obedience and trust are not the same thing. Obedience is owed, and trust is earned.
I've wanted to get my hands on Amerio's stuff for a long time. This whets my appetite. I'm sure I could learn a lot from it even when, as I expect, I have some disagreements.
You can buy Iota Unum from Angelus Press, as I did a few years ago.
Angelus Press, by the way, is run, as I understand it, by the "Lefebvrites", a deprecating term used by Catholic ignoramuses to signify the SSPX.
Truth is where you find it. So is error.
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