From the editor's Preface : 'Liberal American Catholics share a common cultural context of pluralism and an eager embrace of both the documents and the elusive 'spirit' of Vatican II. If conservative was an appropriate term to describe those who thought that the council had gone far enough (perhaps too far) in its attempts to reform the church, then liberal is an appropriate term to describe those who think that the council did not go far enough. If conservative describes Catholics who are often oriented to the past and who ...
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From the editor's Preface : 'Liberal American Catholics share a common cultural context of pluralism and an eager embrace of both the documents and the elusive 'spirit' of Vatican II. If conservative was an appropriate term to describe those who thought that the council had gone far enough (perhaps too far) in its attempts to reform the church, then liberal is an appropriate term to describe those who think that the council did not go far enough. If conservative describes Catholics who are often oriented to the past and who accept traditional religious authority, then liberal can describe those Catholics who are oriented to the future and whose energies are attached to an array of ideas that challenge conventional definitions of religious authority even as they embrace Vatican II's definition of the church as the 'people of God.'Unlike those who believe that Catholicism has been defined and must be guarded against the temptations of the world, liberal Catholics believe that we must continually define and re-define Catholicism in the modern world, embracing many of its values, responding positively to its challenges. At the same time, liberal Catholics are a new group within the church: they look back at pre-conciliar Catholicism and recognise its power to shape their religious imaginations even as they attempt to broaden its definitions of accepted beliefs and behaviours. This book is an attempt to provide, in some detail, the substance of this liberal sensibility and to show some of the directions it has taken in American Catholicism in the thirty or so years since the second Vatican council.It looks at a highly diverse group of American Catholics who describe themselves in progressive terms and asks what they do to warrant that description. "What's Left?" explores the mental universe of a liberal American Catholics in order to illuminate their dreams for the future. I hope that this book also helps its contributors and readers to understand themselves as they try on various adjectives qualifying or expanding what it means to be Catholic in the modern world.'
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Seller's Description:
Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
