The Legacy of John Paul II: An Evangelical Assessment.

Rausch, Thomas P.

THE LEGACY OF JOHN PAUL II: AN EVANGELICAL ASSESSMENT. Edited by Tim Perry. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2007. Pp. 327. $25.

As Mark Noll observes in this collection's first essay, evangelical reactions to Pope John Paul II's death demonstrate just how much Catholic-evangelical relations have changed. Noll surveys the way Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical magazine, reported on Rome and the pope since its founding in 1956. In its early years the magazine was concerned not just about Catholic teaching, but even more with what it and its readers saw as a Catholic tendency toward political oppression. This tendency became especially evident as John F. Kennedy emerged as a presidential candidate. The tide began to turn with Pope John XXIII, who was widely admired, and Pope John Paul II was perceived in a positive light from the beginning of his pontificate. Unlike other Polish bishops, he had welcomed Billy Graham's visit to Poland, and his resistance to Communist tyranny made him seem more sensitive to the rights of religious minorities. Even with reservations about his Mariology and his insistence on papal authority, many evangelicals commented favorably on his use of Scripture, his defense of fundamental Christian doctrines and human life, as well as his opposition to moral relativism and liberation theology.

Thus it is not surprising that Tim Perry, an evangelical theologian at Providence College in Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada, should produce an "evangelical assessment" of John Paul's pontificate with 14 essays examining his encyclicals and apostolic constitutions. Clark Pinnock's essay on Dominum et vivificantem is a wonderful appreciation of John Paul's theology of the Spirit guiding the evolutionary process, overcoming the dualism frequent in evangelical theology between "materialistic evolution and young-earth creationism" (88). He applauds the pope's linking Pneumatology with Christology, enabling him to rethink atonement theology. Pinnock also recognizes the impoverishment of some evangelical traditions by their discarding the liturgical and sacramental practices of the ancient church and their need to rethink their understanding of the Lord's Supper. Perry's own contribution struggles to understand the notion of Marian mediation; he appreciates the pope's retrieval of the wider appreciation of Marian material in Scripture, though the classical reformation dilemma surfaces again when he comes to the question of her cooperation with grace, a dilemma that seems to reflect what Catholics would see as an inability to fully grasp God's profound respect for human freedom. Perry's sound suggestion that the anathemas attached to the two recent Marian definitions be lifted has also been made by Catholic theologians, among them Avery (now Cardinal) Dulles in 1974.

In an essay on Ecclesia de eucharistia Mark Noll helpfully outlines a continuum of evangelical views on the Eucharist, from the Baptist "memorialist" view to the historical or realist position, though he finds throughout the encyclical an ecclesiology foreign to evangelical convictions. In his essay on Ut unum sint, William Abraham suggests a positive response to John Paul's invitation to rethink the papal office, rather than simply falling back into "ecumenical despair" while waiting for Catholics to abandon their vision of the papacy. He gives a nuanced treatment of infallibility, identifying it as "a kind of epistemic nuclear strike, ready to protect the church in its quest for truth and the avoidance of error" (145), and dares to think about what a reunited church might look like and how a papal ministry might function. In his conclusion he echoes what some Catholics have argued, "that evangelicalism operates best as a leaven within a wider ecclesial configuration rather than as a church or a denomination" (156).

In a challenging article on Evangelium vitae, Nancy Pearcey argues that it was Pope John Paul along with Francis Schaeffer who moved evangelicals to engagement with pro-life concerns. Her essay unpacks the pope's theology of the body, showing its application to abortion and sexual issues. Mark Charlton argues that John Paul's social thought challenges evangelicals to rethink the relation between the Great Commandment and the struggle for justice. David Jeffrey, writing on Ex corde ecclesiae, finds that underlying the question of how to integrate faith and learning in the curricula of Christian colleges is the modern rejection of the very concept of truth, including the church's authority on matters of faith and morals, something he says most evangelical churches now lack.

This is an excellent book. It shows evangelical theologians reading and drawing on John Paul's philosophy and social teaching with remarkable sympathy; they are able to be self-critical without failing to point out where they see major differences still remaining between the two traditions. But the common ground they have found can enrich both traditions. As Timothy George says in a gracious epilogue, when Catholics and Evangelicals draw closer to Christ and to one another, we will recognize John Paul II as "our common teacher."

THOMAS P. RAUSCH, S.J.

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles