THE RESILIENT CHURCH: The Necessity and Limits of Adaptation

Father Dulles' version is of the Church as ""a pilgrim community renewing itself by creative interaction with its changing environment,"" and the purpose of his new book is to appraise and carry forward the theological study of the Catholic church made since Vatican II. Each of the chapters originated as a self-sufficient and thoroughly prepared lecture or article, and they retain a considerable independence from each other. The topics--authority, community, criteria for membership, the relation between tradition and modern needs--are all important, and the author is equal to the occasion. When appraising what has happened in the past ten years, and when looking in on the Roman Catholic community, the author turns handsprings to achieve a judicious verdict, but feels too strongly not to be occasionally unfair. Though he approves in theory of attempts to foster a sense of community, he is grossly irritated by the experiments actually made. And note that ""Many people do not want a noisy, talkative, demonstrative liturgy."" When, in the second half of the book, he comes to write his own prescriptions for the future, and is giving haft his attention to ecumenical possibilities, then the writing becomes more straightforward, cohesive, and interesting.