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OUR ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH's EVOLUTION AS REPORTED BY ONE OF OUR FINEST PRIESTS AND SCHOLARS WRITING TODAY, November 4, 2008
This review is from: The Church: The Evolution of Catholicism (Hardcover)
The Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien, a Roman Catholic priest of the Hartford Archdiocese and for several decades a scholar and professor of theology at the Roman Catholic University of Notre Dame (Home of the Fighting Irish) was himself educated at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He has served as President of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and is the respected and accepted author of several academic reference works on Catholicism, as well as popular books for the Faithful and the curious. He has also long written his column popular in several diocesan newspapers across the nation, and which may also now be read at NCRonline. His latest column discusses the hierarchy under Pope Leo the Great, whose feast we now celebrate.
Among his better known publications are the essential
The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, for which he served as editor-in-chief and sort of symphonic conductor, drawing together countless experts in their fields to submit items to this excellent Encyclopedia. The articles range from a few lines long to several pages in length and cover nearly every imaginable aspect of the Roman Catholic Church, religion, rituals, etc.
Another, simpler presentation may be his
Inside Catholicism (Signs of the sacred) for which he wrote the text to this moving series of photographs of several aspects of the Catholic Church, and excellent gift for anyone from the curious, to the convert, to the newly confirmed to the cradle Catholic. Even the cafeteria Catholic may find full conversion here. He is also greatly appreciated for his comprehensive
Lives of the Saints: From Mary and St. Francis of Assisi to John XXIII and Mother Teresa as well as his
Lives of the Popes - reissue: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI which has been updated to include the current papacy. These works are also available in pocket format.
This great Professor of Catholic Theology, the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien, is also well known for his most widely used text:
Catholicism: New Study Edition--Completely Revised and Updated which serves so well seminarians and others eager to enter more deeply the essence of our Faith.
Here in this most recent work we gratefully receive Father McBrien's study of our ecclesiology, beginning with our infant church and the struggles of the very first Christians through the challenges we face now as pilgrim Church in this new millennium. As the subtitle states, within this 500 page book Father McBrien traces our evolution as a community, as one family, as Roman Catholic Church, as a People of God.
Father McBrien as ever does not shirk the hard questions and scandals and embarrassing developments of our past and present, ever hopeful for our future. He examines the origins, for instance of the Inquisition, and the Vatican's position during World War II. He reveals the history of the celibate clergy and the male priesthood. He shows the Church's relationship to Islam. He marks the growth of the Roman Catholic Church in South America, Asia and in Africa, and the effects both upon those regions as well as upon the Church herself.
This is a truly scholarly work; it is not
Catholicism for Dummies. It is not
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism. There are not graphic illustrations, no cartoons, not even historical photographs and sketches of the kind which so fully inform the HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. This is an academic text of a serious subject: our ecclesiology.
What is Church? How did we get here? Where are we going? Through the careful and prayerful meditation and study of this great book we may come to understanding of these questions.
The Reverend Father Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, Professor of New Testament Studies in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry calls this work "a remarkably successful blend of Biblical and historical learning and wise insights from a distinguished Catholic theologian. There is no better guide to recent developments in ecclesiology than McBrien."
The Foreword is written by the renowned past President of Notre Dame, the Reverend Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, who writes: "There is simply no other comprehensive, systematic ecclesiology available to general readers or to students and teachers who focus their attention and study on the mystery and mission of the Church (p. xv)." Father Hesburgh alludes to the work of Cardinal Yves Congar, to whom Father McBrien dedicates this book, and mentions why "Pere Congar" did not write a similar massive tome despite his frequently expressed desire. Father Hesburgh adds: "Fortunately, his devoted disciple has now done that for him and has, in the spirit of filial piety, dedicated the book to his esteemed mentor." Father Hesburgh draws his long and helpful Foreword to a close, declaring: " . . .I have no hesitation at all in warmly recommending this book to a wide and religiously diverse audience, whether in universities, colleges, and seminaries, or in
parish and diocesan adult education programs, or in the more advanced high-school programs and especially high-school teachers of religion. Whether used as a course text or as a personal resource, 'The Church' will serve the Christian Community well for many years to come."
I can add no more than this distinguished Catholic priest and scholar whom Father McBrien served so well so long. All Catholics do well to read this book carefully in its eight parts. No Catholic does well to condemn our greatest theologians without having examined carefully this evidence of their devotion to our Church, and the false standards by which they are so often cruelly and ignorantly judged. This faithful representation of our Church deserves the most caring attention of all who truly love our Church with all of our heart, mind and soul. Father McBrien more fully and wisely presents the issues involved in his Preface and in his Introduction; study them carefully before drawing your conclusions about a book you have not read. More fully you will come to knowing and loving our Holy Mother Church, by the careful study of this great Catholic work.
As I read more deeply this book, I pray that so shall you too!
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