American Catholics face the future

Tomorrow's Church; What's Ahead for American Catholics edited by Edward C. Herr (Thomas More Press $12,95). An American Strategic Theology by John A. Coleman (Fowler Wright Books £7.45).
THE IMPACT Of the Second Vatican Council radically changed Catholic attitudes and practices of earlier generations without determining the pattern of future developments.
The ten contributors to this anthology attempt to look ahead towards the "brave new church" and to the future of priests and people, ecclesiastical and parochial structures, the role of women, schools and education, racial minorities and ecumenical relations.
They do not always agree in their assessments or opinions which are sometimes traditional and at other times progressive.
They are also well aware of the difficulties involved in attempting to predict the future and especially of an institution like the Church: "nothing now seems as dated as those imaginative projections of the future sketched out by optimists of 50 or 75 years ago".
On the whole the ten writers are hopeful rather than optimistic, sober rather than euphoric but always thoughtful and challenging in coming to their conclusions.
There are three particularly valuable and welcome contributions on the priesthood, structures and ecumenism by Father Greeley, Professor Hitchcock and Professor Marty.
In An American Strategic Theology, John Colemand has produced a major contribution to the dialogue between theology and sociology in the context of North America. Father Coleman is concerned about the sociological conditions for a creative impact of religion on society as well as the Church's mission to the cause of justice.
He therefore emphasises the significance of "mission" as well as "community", the influence and challenge of the "world", the importance and relevance of liberation and political theology.
In effect the result is an outline of an "American theology" based on a renewed confidence in the power of biblical and Christian symbolism and the
public possibilities of Christianity within contemporary American culture rather than that easy or simple accommodation to private religion which is frequently if mistakenly associated with believers in the United States.
An American Strategic Theology is not a particularly easy book to read and is more tentative and scholarly, and less naively optimistic, than a brief review might suggest. The author is incidentally a wellinformed historian as well as a
trained sociologist and theologian.
J Derek Holmes