Nervous Systems
By Sara Billups (Baker Publishing Group, 2025)
Most of us have that one friend who can be dramatic, controlling, and anxious—but also warm, funny, and self-reflective. As I read Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics, I found myself thinking of author Sara Billups as such a friend. Her struggles seemed relatable: diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, possibly due in part to being the only child of anxious parents, and now facing the challenge of caring for them in old age.
Billups works through multiple issues thoughtfully, positioning her anxiety in the context of epigenetics, generational trauma, and toxic wellness culture. Only when turning to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius and focusing on “the embodiment practiced by Jesus when he was suffering in a broken body” does she successfully manage personal pain.
If the book ended on that note, it would be good, but in the latter half of the book Billups hits gold, as she explores the church and politics angles promised in the subtitle. Raised in an evangelical church tradition and currently an ordained deacon in an Anglican church, she offers unique insights on themes Catholic readers might find familiar: trad wives, assertive masculinity, the reaction against feminism, and the inexplicable rise of “raunchy Christian culture.” She also details her painful journey supporting her son’s battle with moral scrupulosity and the “deconstruction” many Christians are undertaking.
Billups addresses the “institutionally anxious” American church, and the trend of “white nationalist rhetoric co-opting Christian language to condone hate.” She argues for separation of church and state and religious pluralism as solutions to Christians’ obsessive drive to dominate, insisting that people of faith must show up for one another in community. The book concludes with Jesus’ admonition not to worry and advises, instead, a “holy indifference.”
—Maryanne Hannan
Beyond Priests
By Paul Collins (Sheed & Ward, 2025)
Paul Collins is an Australian journalist, historian, and former Catholic priest who, while in active ministry, was interested in the historical roots of his chosen profession. His new book Beyond Priests: The Future of Ministry in the Catholic Church outlines the challenges clergy face, arguing that some influences on the modern priesthood “are at best questionable, even unorthodox.” Ultimately, he calls for upending the Catholic priesthood.
The challenges Collins outlines include the clerical abuse crisis, the rift between Vatican II priests and their more conservative successors, declining numbers of American Catholics, and changes in how priests are expected to minister in a secular world. At the root of many of these challenges, Collins argues, is clericalism, the church’s privileging of the ordained.
The heart of this book is Collins’ history of the modern priesthood. Surprisingly, the culprits Collins names as responsible for the hierarchical model of priestly ministry are reformers like Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085), who first tried to impose celibacy on the Western clergy. Collins believes such changemakers transformed the priesthood from a synod of community overseers to clerical vassals who ruled their parishes at the pleasure of their bishops—especially the pope. In Collins’ view, nothing less than a radical uprooting of such models of clerical rule will suffice, transforming priesthood back to diakonia (“humble service”) and de-clericalizing the priestly role.
Some readers may find this manifesto a refreshing reminder that clerics were never supposed to be worldly princelings (as Pope Leo XIV affirmed shortly before he became pope). Others might prefer a less extreme call for reform. Nonetheless, Collins’ contribution is a helpful primer on what’s at stake for the priesthood in today’s church.
—Michelle Arnold
Briefly noted:
Behold the Wonder
By Catherine Cavadini and Anastasia Cassady (Ave Maria Press)
Guiding readers through Advent, Behold the Wonder invites readers to imagine themselves witnessing the familiar stories as though they were unfolding before you.
Disability’s Challenge to Theology
By Devan Stahl (Notre Dame Press)
Using insights from disability studies, Stahl explores the theological implications of genetic engineering while urging for the centering of the voices of people with disabilities.
Making Hope
By O’Neil Van Horn (Orbis Books)
Van Horn explores the hope that can blossom from quiet practices such as planting, sewing, and more, even in the face of fear from major climate change.
This article also appears in the October 2025 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 90, No. 10, page 39). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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