Catholics in Crisis?: The Church Confronts Contemporary Issues

by William J. Bausch

Bill Bausch maintains that the Church, though brought low by the challenges of contemporary movements, like New Age and Fundamentalism, is nevertheless able to meet and respond to them. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896229653
• ISBN13: 9780896229655
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Twenty-Third Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Accessible, popular treatment of issues facing 1999Catholics

In his usual popular style, William Bausch launches with gusto into this self described "primer" for Catholics (and others) wanting to face the challenges and influences encountered in Catholic life today. In 229 pages he whirls us through Catholic treatments of the New Age, evangelical fundamentalism, apocalypticism (end of the world - ism), the collapse of the "Total Church" and finally his own best attempts at addressing the struggles of the so described "partial Church." Unlike so many such treatments however, Bausch is less concerned with who is right and who isn't, than with what we as Catholics can learn about our current situation. This latest work is Bausch's response to some of the most topical issues facing (US) Catholics in 1999 and beyond. These same issues are of equal concern to New Zealand Catholics and their treatment here requires only the usual level of cultural translation to fit our South Pacific NZ setting. With a determined and very Catholic hope, the author sets out to explore the depressing statistics, the left and right wing arguments, and the successes of churches and movements offering alternatives to Catholicism. New and Old Age The "New Age," says Bausch, " is so concrete, so appealing, so sentimental - and so fuzzy." Breaking it all down into its chief characteristics, chapter one shows how there is real danger here for the would-be practitioner who wishes also to keep a balanced Christian faith. Very helpful is the unpacking of the self-centredness of much New Age theory and practice, something which immediately jars with the Gospel imperative to selfless living. Bausch, however, is not out to demonise the New Age movement nor its followers, a refreshing change after the truly unchristian efforts of so many self-proclaimed Catholic apologists in recent years. Instead, in chapter two, he begins by asking how the 'Old Age' should react to the New, or better, how Catholic tradition and Catholic beliefs should confront and learn from the New Age? With a critical but open mind, Bausch discovers, there is indeed a lot for us to learn. 'Saved' for the 'Rapture' No prizes for guessing the subject of the next two chapters entitled, Are You Saved and The Bible at the Centre. If you have ever suffered that sinking feeling as you watched yet another friend or family member slide into a fundamentalist church, then these chapters will provide helpful enlightenment. Noting that fundamentalism is present in all religions, Bausch focuses on American Christian fundamentalism, which has made such dramatic in-roads into Catholicism in recent decades. Again though, he is looking for the learnings as well as the dangers. Definitions can be everything in this type of discussion and here I found the author's approach both fresh and balanced. The reader will be intrigued by the range of individuals and groups who get a mention in relation to this topic. Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Catholics United