Heavy Dissidence

The novelist Piers Paul Read (a devout Catholic and author of an enjoyable book of popular theology called Hell and Other Destinations )  describes The Face of Catholic Dissidence :

There is no irony or humour in his writing. The style is heavy, relentless, academic: the author comes across as learned, intelligent, but self-absorbed, self-important and even vain (“Piaget and me”). He says almost nothing about his life as a priest—- his attitude towards the Eucharist, his vow of obedience, the virtue of humility — and he shows little charity towards his opponents.

He is speaking of media star Hans Kueng. The professor has apparently never learned that, as Mary Poppins put it, “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.”