The Catholic Church in a Changing World

A Vatican II-Inspired Approach

Dennis M. Doyle

Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, February 2019. 356 pages.

$32.95. Paperback. ISBN 9781599828626. For other formats: Link to Publisher’s Website.

Review

The Catholic Church in a Changing World is the third iteration of a work intended to introduce students and other readers to the world of Catholicism, and more specifically, to the ecclesial self-understanding of the Catholic Church today (original title: The Church Emerging from Vatican II: A Popular Approach to Contemporary Catholicism, Twenty-Third Publications, 1992; Revised and updated, 2002). The most significant sources of that self-understanding, the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, and its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, provide the jumping off point and basic structure for Dennis M. Doyle’s presentation.

Part 1 begins with a general introduction to the Catholic Church and the challenges of the present context and introduces the documents of Vatican II. Part 2 contains eight sections which correspond to the eight chapters of Lumen Gentium (Mystery, People of God, Hierarchy, Laity, the Universal Call to Holiness, Religious, the Eschatological Nature of the Church, Mary), while Part 3 considers the place of the church in the world in accordance with the basic structure of Gaudium et Spes (servant church, Catholic social teaching, marriage and family, culture, economic life, peace and politics, ecology). As the author suggests, the various sections are best read in conjunction with the conciliar documents.

 

The fruit of a long experience of teaching, this edition updates Doyle’s book “for a new generation of readers” (13), all of them born as the wake of Vatican II subsides and as the modern world, which the council endeavored to address, continues to evolve at an accelerated pace. Each chapter summarizes both historical perspectives and contemporary debate. Following the trajectory of Vatican II’s reflections, Doyle gives ample consideration to the extensive engagement of contemporary Catholicism in ecumenical (interchurch) and interreligious (interfaith) relations, questions of atheism, liberation theologies, the role of women and feminist scholarship, and increasing concern for ecological justice.

This edition contains important new material in which Doyle draws attention to connections between the teaching and trajectories of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ convictions concerning the church and its mission today. Regrettably, while it is mentioned in the list of suggested readings (157), Doyle misses an opportunity to connect Lumen Gentium’s affirmation of the universal call to holiness to Francis’ 2018 exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, “On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World.” Chapter 21 is devoted to Francis’ vision of the church as one that “balances themes of personal conversion and social liberation” (197), together with concern for renewed attention to the task of evangelization. Doyle invites the reader to consider how Francis seeks to advance a synthesis of Vatican II’s approach to the modern world by combining, in his approach to evangelization, concern for personal conversion and incorporation into the church’s missionary outreach; the search for an authentic expression of faith in teaching and witness; and engaging with the world of science, technology, and culture by reading the signs of the times with discerning eyes (198-99). Finally, while acknowledging that the subject of the global ecological crisis was not a direct concern of Catholic Church teaching in 1965, Doyle traces the development of ecological concern (ch. 36) through the pontificates of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, culminating in Pope Francis’ extended reflection on “integral ecology” in the 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si, “On Care for our Common Home.”

Each brief chapter is presented in an even-handed and engaging manner—drawing from the experience of the author and others to show both the meaning and the relevance of each topic or text. Discussion questions and lists of suggested readings at the end of each chapter invite further reflection and engagement on the part of the readers. The book includes a helpful index. This highly informative and accessible volume will serve as an excellent teaching resource for undergraduates and adult learners.

About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):

Dennis Doyle is Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Dayton

John Kaltner and Steven L. McKenzie, The Back Door Introduction to the Bible. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic (www.anselmacademic.org), 2012. Pages, 210. Paper, $22.95

This is a perfect introduction to the Bible for people who know little or next to nothing about the Scriptures. Combining an excellent mix of biblical scholarship, familiarity with the contemporary American cultural scene, and even some humor, it draws readers to conclude that the Bible is worth reading. Although it may not serve as a textbook it can be an effective counterpart to the more standard introductions. Just paging through the chapter headings reveals the book’s unique and engaging approach. The contents of each chapter will lead to lively interchange in the classroom. It is an “easy read” but one that does not shortchange its readers. It is the product of informed and creative scholarship.

John Kaltner, Reading the Old Testament Anew: Biblical Perspectives on Today’s Issues. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic (www.anselmacadmiec.org), 2017. Pages, 284. Paper, $29.95

The assumption behind this work is that the Old Testament can shed light on some of today’s more perplexing problems. Focusing on six topics (creation, covenant, liberation, the human condition, the Other, and social justice) gives the author the opportunity to demonstrate the value of the Bible as a resource for believers in shaping their response to the more significant political, social, and religious issues of the day. This book would suit college and seminary classes well. It directs the reader to appropriate texts from the Bible and offers leads to helpful secondary literature on each topic that can stimulate lively discussions.

Theological Studies, Vol. 81, 2020

 The Artist Alive: Explorations in Music, Art & Theology. By Christopher Pramuk.

Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2019. Pp. 324. $29.95.

Early in this book, Pramuk quotes a student’s first reaction to hearing Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon: “To try to explain the impact of the album would be fruitless because then one would start to sound like a textbook” (41). Her response captures a guiding conviction of P.’s project—that through the arts we can encounter the ineffable that is likewise at the heart of theology. P. has, throughout his award-winning teaching career, incorporated the arts to facilitate this encounter, especially in his popular course, “Music, Art, and Theology.” This book, which could serve as an instructor’s handbook or a textbook for such a course, guides us through this master class with the impassioned prose of a captivating teacher (not the dull drone of that dreaded textbook author!).

The book is pragmatically structured for classroom use. Across the introduction and first chapter, readers learn of the author’s underlying epistemological framework and the theological convictions that animate it. Each person possesses the “seeds of an eternal loving Presence,” and our capacity for wonder and amazement evince this (37). Perceiving this ineffable Presence is, however, a matter of disposition, which can atrophy. P. believes that art not only expresses wonder but can also cultivate a disposition of perceiving “beyond the usual” (34). Indeed, he posits that, “More than 250 Theological Studies 81(1) our scholars and theologians, and certainly more than our politicians and daily newsmakers, it is the world’s artists who can help us reclaim the will to wonder, and so enkindle hope” (37).

P. illustrates this through the “case studies” featured in chapters 2 through 9. Each applies the framework of his early chapters to analyze a work or works of art. While music is featured most frequently (e.g., songs from Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday, Indigo Girls, Bruce Springsteen), P. engages a range of artwork that includes fiction, film, poetry, and iconography from various US and international cultural contexts.

Readers need not be aficionados to follow along. Through his use of Gadamer’s hermeneutical triad of looking “behind,” “within,” and “in front of” the “text,” P. provides an abundance of information to consider as readers innovate and weigh interpretations. Interwoven biblical, philosophical, and theological ideas (e.g., from Charles Taylor, A. J. Heschel, Merton, J. B. Metz) invite readers to link the artist’s perspective to the astonishment, outrage, and hope of theologians who witness to God’s presence and absence in the world, too. Listed at each chapter’s conclusion are additional resources that supply readers and potential instructors with ideas for expanding or changing up each case study. Appendices on classroom activities and assignment ideas aid this too.

Across the case studies, why P. esteems the arts as a medium for cultivating and converting perception becomes clear: art reaches beyond reason to engage the aesthetic and affective dimensions of human life. P.’s frequent association of the artistic and theological disposition with “empathy” suggests that only a cultivated capacity to feel as and with the other can rightly attune a person to the world as it is and should be. This conviction runs throughout chapter 5, where P. explores the music of Stevie Wonder, for example. Even as P. acknowledges the potential empathic impasses born of racial segregation and injustice, he elucidates from Wonder’s life and work a universal call to extend empathy beyond that which “preempt[s] the possibility of love,” “no matter what your racial identity or history” (126). P.’s passion for cultivating empathy is timely amid a wider, growing interest in empathy as an anecdote to societal polarization, but he does not assuage all doubts about what a universal call to empathy might mask. I left chapter 5 wondering whether P. sufficiently accounts for the disproportionate consequences incurred by African Americans as a result of mutual misperceptions “across the color line.” P. would surely agree that the limits of white empathy have had more dire collective consequences than those of the African American community, though this goes unsaid in the otherwise careful chapter.

That the world urgently needs the clear-eyed criticism and hopeful imagination of the artist is another of P.’s arguments. His case studies persuasively show the capacity of art to name and indict distortive cultural imaginaries that foster unsatisfying lives and social injustice. Many desire to address such realities in the classroom: the banality of war, the plight of refugees, ecological devastation, the perils of the modern technological milieu, racial injustice, violent sexual mores, cis- and heteronormativity. To this end, instructors could choose particular case studies for use in a class on one of these topics. Chapter 3’s stirring analysis of Jean Giono’s story, “The Man Who Planted Trees,” and filmmaker Godrey Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy, could serve discussions on Book Reviews 251 capitalism, technology, or our ecological crisis, for example. Whether instructors utilize this plentiful resource selectively or adopt it all together, theological education will be more wonder-filled for it.

Jessica Coblentz

Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion

Inquiry into the New Testament

Ancient Context to Contemporary Significance

Editor(s):

David T. Landry

Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, December 2018. 468 pages.

$44.95. Paperback. ISBN 9781599821740.

Review

Inquiry into the New Testament: Ancient Context to Contemporary Significance, written by David T. Landry with John W. Martens, offers an informative introduction to the history, literature, and theology of the New Testament. In a market that is crowded with introductory textbooks about the New Testament, this survey by Landry and Martens will certainly engage students. They have written an introductory textbook that surveys the critical methods, various interpretations, and necessary background information that will equip students to understand the New Testament.

Landry and Martens have organized their textbook into twenty-two chapters. Each chapter explores a particular subject, text, or group of texts. The basic premise of this textbook is that an unbiased interpretation of the New Testament requires the reader to pay attention to the literary and historical context of the verse, passage, and book under examination. With this premise in mind the authors follow a similar pattern of examining a subject, text, or group of texts by introducing students to the methods of biblical criticism in connection to their practical application in each chapter.

Although Landry and Martens acknowledge that their textbook follows the same approach of Bart Ehrman’s popular New Testament textbook, which introduces the various methods of biblical criticism inductively, they point out that their textbook is unique in at least two ways. First, their textbook is shorter because it does not discuss the post-apostolic literature of early Christianity.

Instead they have chosen to focus only on Christian literature produced in the first century. Second, Landry and Martens recognize that most undergraduate students enroll in a New Testament course because they have to be there and not always because they want to be there. In order to make the New Testament more appealing to such an audience the authors have chosen to focus more on what historians often call the “so what?” question, which they understand as the relevance of biblical texts to modern people.

A critical evaluation of every chapter in this textbook is out of the scope of this review. Instead, this review will provide a short summary of the textbook and highlight some content and features that might appeal to both the student and the teacher.

Landry and Martens provide the necessary background information to understand New Testament texts in the first chapters. They explore the formation of the New Testament, Greco-Roman religions, ancient Judaism, and the Roman Empire. The subsequent chapters introduce students to the Gospels, the methods of biblical criticism, and the apostle Paul.

While some chapters focus on individual texts, others discuss a group of texts. The authors group together the following texts: Paul’s correspondence with the Thessalonians, Philippians, and Galatians; the Johannine literature (the Gospel of John and letters of John); the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles; and the general epistles (James, Jude, 1 and 2 Peter, and Hebrews). Perhaps some of the most unique chapters of this textbook discuss source criticism and the synoptic problem, the quest for the historical Jesus, and the New Testament in the modern world.

This textbook has some unique content and features that may appeal to students. First, each chapter begins with an introduction that engages the student with interesting background information about a subject, text, or group of texts. Second, each chapter includes textboxes with discussions about interesting topics. For instance, the chapter about the Acts of the Apostles includes a textbox that discusses the historical reliability of Acts. Another example is the introductory chapter to Paul, which includes a textbox that asks whether Paul was the inventor of Christianity. The teacher may certainly find these textboxes useful for generating discussion in the classroom. Third, the chapters are written in clear language that the non-expert will easily understand. Fourth, the chapters are not very long so they will maintain the students’ attention.

This textbook has some unique features that may appeal to the teacher too: 1) important key terms and phrases are in bold to more easily capture the attention of the students; 2) the authors have included helpful footnotes that can direct the students’ attention to other resources; 3) the authors have included a list of key terms, review questions, discussion questions, and suggestions for further study at the end of each chapter.

There are some other unique features in this textbook that deserve recognition. The publisher has included images of biblical events or historical locations. In addition, a few chapters have helpful charts or tables for the purpose of organizing or summarizing biblical concepts. Moreover, this textbook includes a few maps, such as Paul’s journeys in Acts.

Landry and Martens have written a textbook designed for undergraduates that will engage them with a thoughtful discussion about historical, literary, and theological interpretive issues within the New Testament. The textbook is logically organized and written in clear language. Overall, this textbook will provide students insight into the critical methods to interpret the New Testament while highlighting the historical context and significance of verses, passages, and texts in the modern world.

About the Reviewer(s):

Steven Shisley is an Instructional Designer at Eastern Kentucky University.

Date of Review:

April 22, 2020

About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s):

David Landry is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas.