522 - The Church With a Human Face: A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry

The Church With a Human Face:
A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry
By Edward Schillebeeckx
New York, Crossroad, 1985. 308 pp. $19.50.

When Edward Schillebeeckx published his volume Ministry in 1980, it brought to a head the difficulties that the Dutch theologian had been having with the Vatican, because it raised quite bluntly basic questions about the sources of ministerial empowerment and the norms for institutionalizing Christian ministry. While Schillebeeckx' new book on Christian ministry, The Church with a Human Face, resulted from reaction to his earlier Ministry, it is far more than a revision. Ministry was at least partially a somewhat disjointed reworking of alreadypublished essays; this volume is a much more integrated and fleshed-out account of the evolution of ministry in the Church, specifically in the Roman Catholic tradition.

In his introduction, Schillebeeckx assesses the response to Ministry, focusing on the sharply negative criticisms of Pierre Grelot. His basic reaction to those, whose views on the origin and nature of ministry differ sharply from his own is applicable to much of the theological tension in Catholic circles today. Fundamental to different stances in ecclesiological research is the hermeneutic that controls one's approach to Church history and traditional faith. Simply put, it depends on what one is looking for or expecting to find.

The book deals with three major topics. Most of it is a tightlyorganized sketch of the evolution of ministry in Christianity, with a concentration on the Church's early centuries. This is followed by an analytic report of the l971 synod of the bishops, which reflected much of the present ministerial malaise in the Roman Catholic Church. Finally, Schillebeeckx very briefly suggests the transformation of ministry that he sees emerging in the life of the Church.

In reconstructing the early evolution of Christian ministry, Schillebeeckx does not propose a final resolution, but he does make a solid contribution to what remains a delicate and complicated task for Christian historians and theologians. Though one might disagree with this or that detail of his explanation, Schillebeeckx' picture of the emerging Church is solidly grounded in whatever historical evidence we possess.

As one would expect from the scholarship contained in his earlier volumes Jesus and Christ, Schillebeeckx has a critically careful but faith-rooted approach to understanding Jesus of Nazareth as the root of Christian ministry and the risen Christ as the continuing source of that ministry. In this way, he avoids, on the one hand, a historical naivete that would anachronistically describe Jesus as foreseeing and planning the structural elements of the Church and, on the other hand, a sociological

524 - The Church With a Human Face: A New and Expanded Theology of Ministry

reductionism that would leave no room for a divine role in the institution of the Church. Methodologically, the book is a model of working theologically with the methods and results of sociological and historical research, being critically controlled but not confined by them.

While the entire volume has profound ecumenical implications, the very brief third section which deals with the Lima Report on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry raises explicitly the common questions about ministry that the Christian churches face. Brief though his comments are, Schillebeeckx puts his finger on what may well be the major shortcoming of that very important Report, namely, its failure to recognize the revolutionary character of lay people's new involvement in Christian ministry.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with Schillebeeckx' views, this book is one that must be taken seriously by anyone interested in a Christianity that is actively engaged in ministering to the needs and potential of humankind.

Bernard Cooke
Holy Cross College
Worcester, Massachusetts