Since her founding by Christ, the Church on earth has recognized and sought to preserve her identity as “one complex reality” (Lumen Gentium 8) formed of both the invisible and the visible, the charismatic and the institutional. Yet within modern Catholic life and theology the ordered unity of these dimensions is increasingly obscured and undermined by distortive tendencies toward democratization, bureaucratization, and secularization. Such contemporary errors threaten not only the Church’s self-understanding but also her mission to restore all things in Christ. In Unconformed to the Age, renowned Australian theologian Tracey Rowland addresses the theological and ecclesiological deviations underlying the present ecclesial disorder, including the prioritization of praxis over truth, the occlusion of the Cross from its central position in the Church’s life, and the substitution of a secular, corporate vision of the Church for its true construal as Christ’s Body and Bride—“Catholic Inc.” versus communio. Engaging especially with the thought and writings of Joseph Ratzinger as well as other twentieth-century theological luminaries, Rowland provides both insightful diagnosis of these current pathologies and a multifaceted illumination of the mystery of the Church, underscoring the Church’s divinely given vocation to bring all people into communion with the Trinity, imbuing human actions, lives, and cultures with the grace of the Incarnation.

Hendrix (geology, U. of Montana) and Davis (earth sciences, U. of Southern California) present 19 articles detailing ground-based work on the history of assembly and intracontinental deformation of central and eastern Asia. Chapters look at the structural, thermochronologic, and sedimentary records of the history of Paleozoic assembly in Mongolia and central and western China. Further information is presented on Mesozoic deformation in orogenic belts of central and eastern Asia. Asia's sedimentary basins are examined and the intracontinental deformation they record is documented. Many of these contributions, particularly the papers examining Mongolian geology, are the first ground-based articles written in English. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)