In this not-quite memoir, Tom Inglis meditates on his journey away from the 20th-century Irish Catholicism into which he was born, exploring the intersections between his personal story and the scholarly study of religion. Unbecoming Catholic will resonate with everyone who has asked questions of the institutional church, only to be met with silence or unsatisfactory answers.
Inglis devotes half of the book to explaining “Catholic colonisation”, the process through which the church came to dominate Ireland’s political, social and family life. This was the main concern of his seminal academic study, Moral Monopoly, published in 1987. But now Inglis shares his experience as one of the colonised.
At first, Inglis was enraptured by the Catholicism presented to him as a small boy, through Mass-going with his mother and connecting with nature. It was not long before the beauty he experienced was replaced with fear and resentment, prompted by his time as a pupil of the De La Salle Brothers.
Inglis retains some affection for the church and provides examples of priests and family members whose selfless service to it did others much good. He also expresses sympathy for priests whose role seems to have been reduced to sacramental service providers for consumers of Catholic culture, rather than for people of faith. Yet he also describes church personnel as “Roman soldiers” who enforced conformity and refused to see abuses of power.
The demise of Catholic Ireland is part of a bigger story about the deinstitutionalisation of religion in the West. Inglis says deinstitutionalisation has created a “new era of being religious”, describing how he and others are increasingly expressing religiosity through relationships and communion in and with nature.
For Inglis, walking his dog in the countryside, sex, and practising yoga are all routes to “a wonderful infinite being, that I am happy to call God”. He argues that a return to nature-based religion – which was common among ancient peoples – is essential to address the climate crisis.
The era of deinstitutionalisation has also produced religious fundamentalists, which Inglis does not consider. Fundamentalists pose serious challenges to global peace and the environment. Like those who once led powerful institutional churches, fundamentalists seek control above all. For Inglis, being religious is the opposite: it is about freedom.
- Gladys Ganiel is Professor in the Sociology of Religion at Queen’s University Belfast
