246 - Vatican 11: Assessment and Perspectives, Vol. I

Vatican 11: Assessment and Perspectives, Vol. I
Edited by Rene' Latourelle
New York, Paulist, 1988. 7 1 0 pp. $25.00.

The Reshaping of Catholicism: Current Challenges in the Theology of the Church
By Avery Dulles
San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1988. 276 pp. $19.95.

Today, Catholic theologians are deeply concerned with the conflict in their church between those who promote the spirit of Vatican II and those who seek to restrain it, in particular the Roman Curia. Vatican IP Assessment and Perspectives, the first volume of a massive, three volume work, is a collection of articles that deal with the important doctrinal and pastoral themes contained in the conciliar documents, From the Introduction we learn that the emphasis is on the Council's positive contribution. The topics examined in the first volume are mainly Scripture, tradition, and church and salvation.

Since the authors are mainly professors teaching at the three Jesuits faculties in Rome, they tend to follow a decidedly European perspective. The articles collected in the volume are very uneven. The excellent first article analyzes the historical context of the Catholic Church prior to and during the Vatican Council and shows that the questions the church had to deal with were raised by the concrete conditions of its historical existence. The reader is disappointed that this contextual approach is not followed in all the articles. The best articles, in my opinion, are those that bring out the newness of Vatican II and demonstrate how deeply embedded in the church's tradition were the positions of those who opposed this newness during the conciliar debates. These deep roots, some going back to the early centuries, explain the emergence of the present reactionary trends. Thus, while Vatican 11 called the whole church laos or people of God, emphasized the community of the faithful including the ordained, and thus hardly ever spoke of 'the laity', the ecclesiastical tradition almost from the beginning understood laos, following the Hellenistic usage, as referring to the people as distinct from their leaders.

The reader is sorry that too many of the articles analyze and refine theological concepts totally oblivious to the different historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts to which contemporary Catholics belong. The volume should be bought by the libraries of Catholic schools of theology and by no one else.

Avery Dulles' Reshaping of Catholicism is a collection of lucidly written articles dealing with the problems and controversies in today's

247 - Vatican 11: Assessment and Perspectives, Vol. I

Catholic Church. Here a great scholar addresses a wide audience on issues important in the church's life. Dulles sees himself as a theologian of the middle. He is open to new ideas and transformation, but he warns of exaggerations. He wants to close, rather than widen the gap between the conflicting parties in the church. His is an American imagination of checks and balances. He has produced a useful, readable book.

Dulles appears a little uncomfortable with the two major pastoral letters of the American bishops on peace and on economic justice. As a man of the middle, he is ill at ease with the critique of American empire and American capitalism implicit in these documents. These criticisms, as Dulles recognizes, are actually in line with the social teaching of John Paul II. The discomfort reveals deeper theological issues. We note that in regard to the gospel, Dulles does not want to be a man of the middle. Here, be calls for radical discipleship. In this context, he reaffirms the position of the Hartford Declaration. The primary duty of the church is to give witness to God's utter transcendence. Only after that will the church turn to social concern. But what if the transcendent, divine mystery, the biblical God, triune and eternal, is graciously biased in favour of the poor, the victims, the crucified? If that were true, then the Hartford Declaration would be wrong, and surrender to the transcendent God would necessarily include an option for the disenfranchised.

Gregory Baum
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec
Canada