Customer Reviews

Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007

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Avery Dulles (son of John Foster Dulles) is one of America's most distinguished theologians. In 2001, John Paul II named him a cardinal, joining a select rank of eminent theologians who were granted this title, including Jean Danielou, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac.

This work collects Cardinal Dulles' Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, which he gave from 1988-2007. (Many of them were published in First Things, but this edition is helpful because it contains extensive notes.)

Cardinal Dulles addresses a variety of "hot topics" related to society and theology (such as the death penalty, the population of hell, and the salvation of non-Christians) free from polemics and with an incredible grasp of the history of theology.

Not everyone will agree with Cardinal Dulles' conclusions. For example, he believes that von Balthasar's ruminations about the possibility that no one is in hell is orthodox. (In fact, it might even have been shared by John Paul II.) He is rather optimistic about non-Christians being saved and shows that recent church teaching has "evolved" on this issue (speaking of which, there is an excellent lecture on evolution). Some Evangelicals might use Cardinal Dulles' writings as an example of how, on a few issues at least, Catholic teaching has veered toward liberal (or at least mainstream) Protestantism.

This is an extremely well written book(great command of English language) that brings catholic christian theology into terms with the 21st century world. It embraces history, tradition and the evolution of roman catholic theology, giving it a sense at the core of nowadays society. Highly recommended not only for theology lovers but for English language and sociology lovers as well.

this piece helped place my ideals of Spirituality back in line with my families ideals of what being a Catholic truly is -- we are not mainstream -- and neither was Monsignor McGinley