Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Catholicism In the Third Millennium by: Thomas P. Rausch

Catholicism: In the Third Millennium
Thomas P. Rausch
Michael Glazier Books

This book is a new edition of Catholicism: At The Dawn Of The Third Millennium. It is a great book for one raised in the Catholic tradition or someone who is curious about it. It looks back over the past thirty-odd years at the goals of Vatican Council II, and how the church is doing at living up to the expectations from that event.

This revised edition does not, at first look, appear that different. Yet the few differences make it well worth it. There is major revision of chapter 2, section two, which has gone from being ‘The People of God’ to ‘God and God’s People’. There are also discussion questions at the end of each chapter. That will help the reader digest the material, or help a group study the book together.

All in all, in a new edition written seven years after the first, I was hoping for much more. There was an expectation of newer and fresher analysis of the material. Yet, even with that letdown, the book is worth an examination by a member of the catholic community or the casual scholar.

(First Published in Across the Creek 2006-02-10)


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