Refounding the Church: Dissent for Leadership.

Jones, Tracy K., Jr.

By Gerald A. Arbuckle. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1993. Pp. ix, 224. Paperback $18.95.

The publication of this book by a Roman Catholic anthropologist and a member of a religious order will not bring joy to the heart of Pope John Paul II and those in power in Rome. The author believes that their effort to "restore" the past, though "culturally predictable," is doomed to failure. The book is a challenge to the Catholic religious orders, out of their love for the church and faithfulness to Christ's mission, to play the role of "loyal dissent" against those seeking to move the church in that direction. In past eras of radical change, he writes, the religious orders for the sake of mission played that role of dissent and it made the difference. Today, he says, they need to do the same.

The first part of the book examines the climate of "secrecy, orthodoxy and witch-hunting" that pervades the Roman Catholic Church today. He sees this as the tragic consequence of trying to restore the past instead of living in the future envisioned by Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council.

Part 2 of the book provides the author's outline as to how the religious orders can be transformed from within so that they can provide the vision, strategies, models, and leadership that will keep the Roman Catholic Church on the path set by Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. The book may not find favor with those in power in Rome today, but its publication will bring a smile of approval to the faces of other Catholics, many in the United States, who saw in Pope John XXIII and the Vatican Council the kind of future they want for the Roman Catholic Church.

Tracey K. Jones, Jr., is a retired missionary and mission executive of the United Methodist Church.