Toward a New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform [Paperback]

James Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

Elaborating on “A Call for Vatican III” in his best-selling book Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, James Carroll proposes a clear agenda for reform to help concerned Catholics understand the most essential issues facing their Church. He moves beyond current events to suggest new ways for Catholics to approach Scripture, Jesus, and power, and he looks at the daunting challenges facing the Church in a world of diverse beliefs and contentious religious fervor. His case for democracy within the Church illustrates why lay people have already initiated change. Carroll shows that all Catholics -- parishioners, priests, bishops, men and women -- have an equal stake in the Church's future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this reconstituted version of his call to Catholic reform at the end of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, Carroll seizes the moment of Catholicism's sexual-abuse crisis to present his ideas afresh. His agenda for change is emblematic of the one touted by progressive reform groups throughout the church in America and Europe. Carroll, a former priest who was in the seminary during the landmark Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, proposes a "Vatican III," suggesting it could even be held in a place like Boston, the epicenter of the current scandal. He presents five areas of reform dealing with scripture, the ecclesiastical power structure, teachings about Jesus Christ, democracy and institutional repentance. Among other things, Carroll would like to see the church develop a more sophisticated relationship with its scriptures, loosen its power structures to permit more lay involvement, repeal papal infallibility and de-emphasize the traditional Christian teaching that Jesus is the only way to salvation so as to engender greater respect for other religions. The latter springs from Carroll's deep concerns about the church's long history of anti-Semitism, and it is a constant, somewhat overused, theme as he expands on his vision for a new Catholic Church. Readers who support the kinds of changes Carroll is seeking will be drawn to his latest work, but some orthodox Catholics may find his ideas disturbing.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Taking advantage of the recent priests-and-sex crisis, Carroll polishes the conclusion of his history of Catholic anti-Semitism, Constantine's Sword (2001), into his latest anthem of dissent. Carroll shares his core complaint--that the church is institutionally corrupt--with the dean of progressive carpers, Garry Wills (see Why I Am a Catholic [BKL Je 1&15 02]). He has a reform agenda, however, consisting of five proposals: expand the faithful's biblical literacy in sophistication and depth; purge the church's political pretensions and behavior; reformulate Christology to emphasize Jesus as revelator rather than savior; run the church democratically; and repent of anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, and other ills by admitting the church has sinned. Often far from limpidly expressed, Carroll's argument also seems, in light of what Philip Jenkins' Next Christendom [BKL Ap 1 02] depicts as Catholicism's future, awfully Euro-American-centric. His insistence on downplaying the Cross, in particular, ignores how Christ's Passion empowers embattled, poor Third World Christians. George Weigel's Courage to Be Catholic [BKL S 1 02] advances more likely changes. An important statement, nevertheless. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; None edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618313370
• ISBN-13: 978-0618313372
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #796,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Carroll was raised in Washington, D.C., and ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. He served as a chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974, then left the priesthood to become a writer. A distinguishedscholar-in-residence at Suffolk University, he is a columnist for the Boston Globe and a regular contributor to the Daily Beast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toward a new religion, September 5, 2002

By 

E. Thomas Dowd (Akron, Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward a New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform (Paperback)

For the first four chapters, I thought I had never read a book on the Catholic Church where the ideas so perfectly meshed with my own. When talking about the exercise of church power, interpreting the Bible, relations with those of other religions (especially Jews)and treatment of women, James Carroll has written a book that rings of truth. In the chapter on a New Christology, however, he advocates an emphasis on creation and divine love available to all rather than salvation and diverges so much from what has been thought of as Catholicism (or even Christianity) that he virtually creates a new syncristic religion. The advocated embrace of pluralism would place Catholicism as one religion among many with nothing particular to recommend it over any other. One wonders what the place of evangelism would be in such a structure. In the final chapters on democracy and repentance he is once again on more solid ground, though he has more faith (if I may use that word) in democracy that I do. All in all, however, a thought-provoking book that will both please and offend many. No one will be bored, however.

38 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What would be the point of his "new" church?, September 4, 2002

By 

Chris in Maine (Portland, ME United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toward a New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform (Paperback)

James Carroll, like many other liberal Catholic authors making bestseller lists today, is very skilled in pointing out the reality of Original Sin, and its effects on men, even men of the collar. The presence of sin in the Church is not news. However, to use this reality in a dishonest way to "reel-in" people's emotions is, simply put, an objective evil. However, the phenonema of people believing anything and everything they read is nothing new. As another truly Catholic author, G.K. Chestern wrote early in the last century, "Statements are made so plainly and positively that men have hardly the moral courage
to pause upon them and find that they are without support."

And that's really the question here; do the things cited by Caroll support in any way the thesis he tries to propose? The reality of original sin, no matter how tragic, has nothing to do with women's ordination. The reality of original sin, no matter how tragic, has nothing to do with accepting gays. The reality of original sin, no matter how tragic, has nothing to do with needing to accept liberal textual criticism and an entirely pointless, "Jesus seminar-esque" Jesus. It also has nothing to do with the divine truth of Catholic doctrine, and all that derives itself from that.

The problem is that he, like Gary Wills, uses the faults of individuals (even in collective) as a vehicle to promote completely unrelated ideas; particularly his vision of a church which is in no way distinguishable from liberal, modernist, secular society. The church would effectively cease to be the City of God on earth, but rather become a building where nothing significant or worthwhile takes place. It would be a place where the ideas preached inside are simply re-statements of ideas passed around by the media and on the streets. Catholicism, in short, would simply become another new-age "feel good" religion, and not the religion where people are convicted of their sins, and are moved to repent (which involves the acceptance of immutable and objective - not subjective and relativistic - moral codes), trust in Jesus, and have their lives changed for the sake of following Jesus, no matter how little society at large thinks of you. THIS is the legitimate mission of the Church. The mission of the Church is not to conform itself to the wisdom of this age (Rom. 12:12).

And if you really think about it, this is the logical deduction of the Church that liberals envision; a Catholic Church that is entirely indistinguishable from secular society at large.

If you want some intelligent commentary on the real issues, their roots, and VALID, Godly solutions, I suggest reading Michael Rose's "Goodbye, Good Men", and George Weigel's "The Courage to be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church."