A straightforward, six-session guide by which a group can reflect on the basic ideas presented in Rowthorn's The Liberation of the Laity. This guide encourages participants to make personal links between the spirituality of Sunday worship and weekday ministries in the workaday world.

Best Theology Book 2004 - Catholic Press Assocation The present crisis in the American Catholic Church stems from a two-fold source: lay people are powerless while the bishops are accountable to no one but the pope and the curia. While the number of lay people exercising ministries in the church has grown enormously over the past thirty years (largely due to the shortage of priests), there has been little or no theological reflection till now on the genuine role of the laity. It is only from such reflection that structural reform of the church will come.The first half of The Liberation of the Laity concentrates on the fortunes of the laity, theologically speaking, between Vatican I (1870) and Vatican II (1962-65). It examines the growth of the "new theology" in France in the 1940s and 1950s and shows how in the work of one of its leading practitioners, Yves Congar, much of the vision of the laity expressed at Vatican II was anticipated. Seeing the years after the council as decades of missed opportunities to recognize the role of the laity, the book then turns to a series of constructive proposals for the liberation of the laity, and thus the liberation of the church. It discusses the importance of "secularity," the need for a "lay liberation theology," and the centrality of the struggles against global capitalism in the mission of the church. It ends with a chapter envisioning dramatic changes in ministry and governing structures, in which accountability will be central, "servant leaders" will include women and married people, and both ecclesiastical careerism and the College of Cardinals will be history.

Explores the nature of Christian mission in contemporary post-modern society. This book examines the main historic types of mission in the Christian tradition, seeing how they were forged in the cross currents of history and how they continue to be expressed by different Christian communities.

Explores the nature of Christian mission in contemporary post-modern society. This book examines the main historic types of mission in the Christian tradition, seeing how they were forged in the cross currents of history and how they continue to be expressed by different Christian communities.

More than a guidebook to the postmodernity debate, Paul Lakeland's lively and novel volume clarifies the critical impulses behind the cultural, intellectual, and scientific expressions of postmodern thought. He identifies the issues it presents for religion and for Christian theology. Concentrating on God, Church, and Christ, Lakeland outlines the church's mission to the postmodern world, including a constructive theological apologetics.