This engaging book establishes a new framework for meeting the challenges facing the church in a changing world. John Allen is the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR and has a weekly Internet column called “All Things Catholic.” He has drawn from thousands of hours of interviews with church hierarchy, priests, theologians, political activists, social workers, ecumenists and liturgists among others to survey—and provide context for—the most important currents shaping the Catholic Church today, “and to look down the line at how they might play out during the rest of the 21st century.”
The trends he explores (which he stresses are in no particular order of importance) are:
- World Catholicism (a majority of Catholics reside in Africa, Asia and Latin America);
- Evangelical Catholicism (and the politics of identity);
- Islam (Catholicism’s top inter-faith priority);
- The New Demography;
- Expanding Lay Roles;
- The Biotech Revolution (the church in a “brave new world”);
- Ecology (Catholic activism re: economic development and the poor);
- Multipolarism (diplomatic strategies of Catholic leaders):
- Pentecostalism (and its rise)
Watch for an upcoming (December 7) review of this book in America, in which Richard Gaillardetz notes: “A particular strength of Allen’s work lies in the character of his prognostications….This creates a fascinating portrait of the many possible futures of the church.”
Purchase The Future Church
This article appears in November 23 2009.
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