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The Resilient Church: The Necessity and Limits of Adaptation
accommodating change to transition
- GenresTheology
229 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
8 people want to read
About the author
Avery Dulles
92 books22 followersAvery Robert Dulles, S.J. (1918-2008) was a Jesuit priest, theologian, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and served as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 to 2008. He was an internationally known author and lecturer.
Dulles was born in Auburn, New York, the son of future U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named) and Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. His uncle was Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles. Both his great-grandfather John W. Foster and great-uncle Robert Lansing also served as U.S. Secretary of State.
He received his primary school education in New York City at the St. Bernard's School and attended secondary schools in Switzerland and The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut.
Dulles was raised a Presbyterian but had become an agnostic by the time he began college at Harvard in 1936. His religious doubts were diminished during a personally profound moment when he stepped out into a rainy day and saw a tree beginning to flower along the Charles River; after that moment he never again "doubted the existence of an all-good and omnipotent God." He noted how his theism turned toward conversion to Catholicism: "The more I examined, the more I was impressed with the consistency and sublimity of Catholic doctrine." He converted to Catholicism in the fall of 1940.
After graduating from Harvard College in 1940, he spent a year and a half in Harvard Law School, where he also founded the "St. Benedict Center" (which would become well-known due to the controversial Fr. Leonard Feeney S.J.), before serving in the United States Navy, emerging with the rank of Lieutenant. For his liaison work with the French Navy, he was awarded the French Croix de guerre.
Dulles was born in Auburn, New York, the son of future U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named) and Janet Pomeroy Avery Dulles. His uncle was Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles. Both his great-grandfather John W. Foster and great-uncle Robert Lansing also served as U.S. Secretary of State.
He received his primary school education in New York City at the St. Bernard's School and attended secondary schools in Switzerland and The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut.
Dulles was raised a Presbyterian but had become an agnostic by the time he began college at Harvard in 1936. His religious doubts were diminished during a personally profound moment when he stepped out into a rainy day and saw a tree beginning to flower along the Charles River; after that moment he never again "doubted the existence of an all-good and omnipotent God." He noted how his theism turned toward conversion to Catholicism: "The more I examined, the more I was impressed with the consistency and sublimity of Catholic doctrine." He converted to Catholicism in the fall of 1940.
After graduating from Harvard College in 1940, he spent a year and a half in Harvard Law School, where he also founded the "St. Benedict Center" (which would become well-known due to the controversial Fr. Leonard Feeney S.J.), before serving in the United States Navy, emerging with the rank of Lieutenant. For his liaison work with the French Navy, he was awarded the French Croix de guerre.
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July 5, 2019
As a theologian, Avery Dulles (1918-2008) was widely respected across a considerable spectrum of his Catholic faith tradition and beyond. He was the first U.S. theologian to be named to the College of Cardinals; he was a Cardinal-Deacon rather than a bishop. In his last year of life, he wrote: “As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels.”
Dulles authored more than 750 articles and 25 books. The thrust of this important, relatively early book is to be found in its subtitle, “The Necessity and Limits of Adaptation.” In other words, how should we balance the ever-present tension between the static and the dynamic in different times and cultures? His approach is directed toward nine issues crucial today as well as in 1977. (One can be forgiven for wondering why the Church has so failed, in many ways, to come to grips with any of the nine!) The following typifies his approach and its then-and-now aspect.
Chapter IV, a critique of modernity (which an amazing number of reasonably astute people totally confuse with modernism), concludes: “For Catholics today, the task of theological affirmation is intimately linked with the question who has the authority to speak for the Church, and under what conditions.” (p. 91) Fast forward to 2019 and the roles that the Papacy, the Curia, bishops’ conferences, synods, individual bishops, and the laity themselves are asking to play for a continuation of Dulles’ investigation.
Dulles authored more than 750 articles and 25 books. The thrust of this important, relatively early book is to be found in its subtitle, “The Necessity and Limits of Adaptation.” In other words, how should we balance the ever-present tension between the static and the dynamic in different times and cultures? His approach is directed toward nine issues crucial today as well as in 1977. (One can be forgiven for wondering why the Church has so failed, in many ways, to come to grips with any of the nine!) The following typifies his approach and its then-and-now aspect.
Chapter IV, a critique of modernity (which an amazing number of reasonably astute people totally confuse with modernism), concludes: “For Catholics today, the task of theological affirmation is intimately linked with the question who has the authority to speak for the Church, and under what conditions.” (p. 91) Fast forward to 2019 and the roles that the Papacy, the Curia, bishops’ conferences, synods, individual bishops, and the laity themselves are asking to play for a continuation of Dulles’ investigation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review