Understanding Catholicism
Imbelli, Robert P
Keys to the Catholic vision UNDERSTANDING CATHOLICISM Monika K. Hellwig Paulist, $4.95, 200 pp. Robert P. Imbelli NOT too LONG ago a teacher of theology was hard pressed to find books which...
...I should like to single out several key sensitivities which particularly recommend the book...
...The book bears no trace of the tiresome polemics concerning private or public religion, the bedchamber or the chambers of government, as though the call to conversion was restricted in scope...
...This fundamental option, inscribed in human deeds and projects, assumes the shape of faith or idolatry: and each option is fraught with consequences for both self and society...
...Under these headings she treats such specific theme...
...And, though institutions and structures can carry and prolong this evil, its roots reach deeper...
...Integral to the presentation are well-considered historical references (to church councils, prominent theologians, and heretical movements) which show her deep respect for the fidelity to the Catholic past...
...For the Catholic vision embraces both the individual and the societal...
...It sustains the always partial and never complete effort (this side of the consummation) to embody and sacramentalize "the fragrance of the Spirit" in all the spheres of human action and passion, creating thereby the City in which God is pleased to dwell...
...Salvation in the full sense, therefore, looks to the future redemption of the whole world of human affairs, the transformation of sinful structures, the healing of painful and harmful relationships, the repairing of human community in alt its dimensions, so that all is reconciled and focused toward God as its final end...
...Recently, the harvest has become more bountiful, providing such fine resources as Richard McBrien's extensive study, Catholicism...
...Understandably, the early efforts towards theological renewal took the form of exploratory articles rather than book-length studies...
...In this time of reorientation in christology, which is often reacting against a past one-sidedness, it is encouraging to see Hellwig outlne a christRedemption is a liberation, a setting free, not from the world and its responsibilities and claims and burdens but rather a setting free in the world to bring it to fulfill Cod's purpose precisely by undertaking its responsibilities and claims and burdens...
...Human Life Before God," "Jesus, the Compassion of God," "The Spirit in the Church," and "The Mystery of the End...
...The author organizes her study into four major divisions...
...ology that is so firmly rooted and finely balanced...
...as revelation, creation, sin, the life death, and resurrection of Jesus, the church as communion and institution sacraments, individual and social des tiny, and God as Trinity...
...I believe that only by thus giving central place to the mystery of the cross can one illuminate the tradition's unique claim concerning the person and work of Christ...
...Finally, the thread which binds the work into a coherent whole is the Catholic vision of a sacramental universe, focused upon the incarnation of Christ, but fulfilled in the ongoing transformation of all material reality, through the bodily transfiguration of men and women...
...The dominant tone is both traditional and personal, deeply irenic, and challenging...
...He is the one who has tasted death for all that he might bring all to new life...
...For the crucified one is more than teacher or exemplar...
...Secondly, this both/and of the Catholic concern also characterizes Hellwig's discussion of sin as the...
...and, though dense in style, it continues to be a richly rewarding work...
...Thirdly, Hellwig's diagnosis of the human problematic issues in a nuanced and informed discussion of christology...
...Hellwig perceptively locates these roots in the very soil of human finitude, with its inevitable death-taste...
...Confronted with their finitude and mortality, humans either affirm or turn from the reality of their creatureliness...
...Robert P. Imbelli NOT too LONG ago a teacher of theology was hard pressed to find books which presented a comprehensive Catholic theological vision, while being fully in the spirit of Vatican II...
...As Hellwig suggests: "The death of Jesus is a reorientation of human freedom to God so fundamental and consequential that it constitutes a kind of cosmic explosion of possibilities which definitely alters the whole human situation...
...she strives to penetrate their sense so as to contribute creatively and responsibly to the Catholic future...
...The Catholic vision thus understood is not extrinsic to the human adventure but integral and wedded to it, evoking its authentic possibilities and celebrating its heights and depths...
...In welcome contrast to some contemporary efforts, her christology accords a privileged place to the cross as the royal road to resurrection...
...For her delicate and challenging portrait of this vision in Understanding Catholicism all lovers of the City stand in Monika Hellwig's debt...
...No other single work with which I am acquainted presents so fresh and accessible an introduction to the essentials of the Catholic vision...
...Nonetheless the predicament for teachers, both in formal classroom settings and more informal discussion settings, remained acute...
...Here she outlines a comprehensive approach which does justice to the public ministry of Jesus, the centrality of the cross, and the new creation which is resurrection...
...However, Hellwig does not merely recite the formulas of the past...
...It simply presumes that the Catholic vision extends to the full range of the human before God, while any restriction of its scope is ultimately sectarian...
...The treatment of each theme is always succinct and stimulating, often poetic and profound...
...For, "the unwillingness to be dependent on God is most dramatically expressed in unwillingness to be interdependent with other people...
...Monika K. Hellwig Understanding Catholicism...
...Yet there is still ample cause to celebrate Monika Hellwig's splendid new book, Understanding Catholicism...
...The fragmentation and disintegration of sin have inseparable individual and societal repercussions...
...distortion of God's creative intent...
...and its ecclesial sense emphasizes both the communal and the institutional...
...It is a book for all seasons and for many and varied audiences...
...The appearance of Joseph Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity in the late sixties offered new promise...
...Firstly, the author takes care not to slight either the individual call to conversion, which the Gospel addresses to each, or the institutional context which helps or hinders the transformative process...
Vol. 109 • January 1982 • No. 2
