John Allen Jr. says he received — and rejected — many suggestions for inclusion in his The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church.
Judging by the ones he picked, he is a man who truly “gets it.”
The Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR (and senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter), Allen is the consummate Catholic journalist. There are certainly other excellent Catholic journalists who respect both sides of a disputed question, treat ideological “opponents” as legitimate voices, and who aren’t afraid to report a fact, even if it challenges their worldview.
But there are precious few.
Catholic opinion journalists are often so parochial in their approach that they produce works that leave the like-minded comforted, the curious unconvinced, and their opponents untouched.
Self-styled liberal Catholics writing about the future of the Church tend to read like Tory essayists in 1775 might. The statistics they like loom large in their minds, while they casually dismiss the signs of an insurgency welling up around them.
We have been told variously that the Church is “adrift” or “at a crossroads,” and laypeople are itching to “confront” or “reclaim” it. Funny. The Catholics I know didn’t notice. Maybe we were too busy shuttling giant vans filled with our kids in between hard-core Catholic boys’ clubs, girls’ clubs, home-school events and demonstrations for life and marriage.
Allen, however, can see the insurgency — and is able to distinguish some of its enduring trends from its passing issues.
Allen follows Phillip Jenkins and others (and avoids Samuel Huntington’s error in The Clash of Civilizations) to remind us that the future Church will be “A World Church,” in which Christianity will not be synonymous with “white European” (as indeed it has ceased to be even now).
In a fascinating passage, he explains why he didn’t make the sexual-abuse crisis one of his trends:
“From a purely descriptive point of view, it’s difficult to make the argument that the crisis looms large in the day-to-day concerns of either the Catholic grassroots or the hierarchy anywhere outside the English-speaking zones of the world. … However one explains it, the fact is that nowhere else has the sexual abuse crisis gripped the public imagination to the same degree. … Even in the United States the crisis has not had quite the transformative impact that some predicted.”
While he doesn’t separate out “sex abuse” as a trend, he offers two trends that touch on its root causes.
For those who blame clericalism for the abuse crisis, Allen offers Trend Five, “Expanding Lay Roles.” He points to a “new theological understanding” of lay roles in the Catholic Church.
For those who see the sex-abuse scandal as part of a larger faith crisis, Allen’s Trend Two is “Evangelical Catholicism.” It’s refreshing to read his account. Missing are the common sneering stereotypes of “fundamentalists” and “ultraconservatives.” He points to evangelical Catholics who sound sensible: They prefer that churches “look like churches” and are pro-life but also antiwar.
As Allen points out, “Their formative experience wasn’t growing up in a rigid, stifling Church, but rather a rootless secular culture. Their hunger for identity is better understood in terms of generational dynamics, not ideology.”
In the end, he concludes that evangelical Catholicism of the 21st century will be doctrinally traditional, politically assertive, “deliberately different” and “dynamic, yet divided.”
Readers will, of course, have their quibbles and quandaries.
“Islam” makes sense as a trend, though the dynamic tension between Islam and Christianity is hardly something new.
“Ecology” is clearly a trend in the world, but I’m not sure how it is “revolutionizing” the Catholic Church.
On the one hand, he’s dead on with “The Biotech Revolution,” “The New Demography” and “Pentecostalism.”
On the other hand, the renaissance of Catholic higher education merits more than the brief mention he gave it. In the past 10 years, seven new Catholic universities faithful to the Church have been founded, and older schools have recommitted themselves to the doctrines of the Church. The influence of reinvigorated higher education can’t be exaggerated: Again and again in history, sea changes at the college level have had enduring and deep consequences in the culture.
But quibbles and quandaries aside, it’s great to read a book called The Future Church that isn’t a dissenter’s wishful thinking or a doubter’s despair, but a serious reporter’s careful scrutiny.
Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.
THE FUTURE CHURCH
How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church
By John L. Allen Jr.
Doubleday, 2009
480 pages, $39.95
To order: randomhouse.com
Jimmy Akin: Whoa, Dude!!! Taliban Catholicism?!?!
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For those who see the sex-abuse scandal as part of a larger faith crisis, Allen’s Trend Two is “Evangelical Catholicism.” It’s refreshing to read his account. Missing are the common sneering stereotypes of “fundamentalists” and “ultraconservatives.” He points to evangelical Catholics who sound sensible: They prefer that churches “look like churches” and are pro-life but also antiwar.
Tom,
Having not read this book I cannot say much on it then what is presented by yourself and Mr. Akin. I will say I find it interesting that you two have somewhat of a disagreement. Mr. Akin comes to the defense of traditional Catholics as you and Mr. Allen seem to throw them under the bus. Having read more of your blogs recently and corresponding with you over the email it is not a surprise to me coming from you. While you do not slander those who hold to the Churches traditions, you go as far as to indicate what we are about is wrong. Should we be so accepting to the modern era? Things have changed drastically in the past 50 years and believe it or not Tom you imply that you are very accepting of many of the things that the left has ushered in by attacking my side.
It is proper and praise worthy to attend Mass and to be pro-life but to only be those things and claim to be a Catholic is not acceptable. Not to say this is any individual but this is a plaguing problem of our society. Being Catholic is not what we do but who we are. It should be an outward expression of our lives. We should grasp the Church for all that it is and has been. Yet so many live it as a side life and then throw modest in dress, in entertainment (TV shows and movies), and conduct out the window. Is it wrong to smash the TVs and go against the modern fashions that Our Lady of Fatima and Popes Puis X and XII warned about? Is this not to blame as a root too many problems possibly even the sex abuse scandals?
I say for all those who’s stomach’s turn at the sight of most ordinary forms performed in America today , the architecture of our Churches, the music of the liturgy, and reading those that struggle to “give up” facebook for lent; do not worry. Those who hold to the traditions only follow the trends of the apostles and the saints. We don’t have any intention to revolutionize anything. We have to live in this world but we are not of it.
Though I have know quite a few very holy “Evangelical Catholics” as you call it, they do miss many of the Church’s tradition due that they have no connection to it. Maybe you think that they are “more sensible” for this I know that it is refreshing once many of them see those who hold fast to the traditions that they grow in their faith to an even deeper level.
God Bless,
Jimmy May
The paragraph above that begins: “As Mr Allen points out their formative experience wasn’t growing up in a rigid, stifling Church,etc” tells me
a whole lot about where Mr Allen is coming from and headed for with his future Church…and I think his is a book I will pass on. Been there and read that before…having grown up in the 40’s and 50’s when the Church was as Chesterton said"everything and all!” It is sad but true if you are an older Catholic today your adversaries will accuse you of living in the past and not willing to change with the culture.
Well, Mr.Allen’s future Church will make us long even more for the “good old days” and its truth and beauty forsaken for modernism by nearly all
who claim to be Catholic.
The comment about being “prolife” and “antiwar” is silly, our country has never been pro-war, but you can’t take the option off the table
Apparent the writer didn’t hear Allen crucify Benedict on NPR Saturday.
I am a product of post Vatican II. It is very disheartening to read such dissension in the portrayals of Catholicism as the above writers commented on this article. I refuse to cast stones in judgment on this issue. There is beauty in the Tridentine Mass just as much as I find beauty in a Life Teen Mass. I grew up in Texas with strong Baptist influence in my education and I had to learn quite early as a teen to defend my faith, but this process is a healthy one. Catholic means universal and I believe our challenge for our church is project the many facets of our spiritual in the diversity of Catholic worship. The fundamental essential tenets of our faith must be maintained while integrating with the world we live in. This is the church I cover in my prayers so that we truly live out our apostolic calling.
I live in a parish in which almost everybody grew up in the pre-Vatican II church because most of their children and grandchildren no longer attend ANY church. this is the most disturbing trend I see - and since their attitude of ostrich-style complacency repels me I can see why younger people also find it repellant. I have this wonderful vision of the bishop of Rome in the early 4th century deciding that since the Church can now come out of the catacombs, he will transfer the Eucharist, which has been hidden in his home, to its new home in St. John Lateran. As the procession forms in the plaza outside his house two older Roman ladies stand on the side. One says to the other, “Processions! we never had processions when I was a girl!” to which the other replies, “Singing and dancing in the streets! What is our church coming to?” Two things are unchangin in the church: doctrine and human behavior. Anything else is negoitable.
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