The Future Church of 140 Bce

by Bernard Lee

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824515293
• ISBN13: 9780824515294
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Herder & Herder
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Catholicism Goes Back to the Future!

It has often been said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Bernard Lee takes this admonition one giant step further, implicitly asserting that history is in fact repeating itself within the Church; we just need to look backward to see what's ahead! His refreshingly prophetic look to the past sees a future church marked by the inclusion of laypersons along side clerics -- not just as outside contributors to discussion -- but as an integral part of the "official" guild of interpreters of Catholicism. He sees this paradigm shift as akin to the emergence of the Pharisees (laymen) in Judaism, a century and a half before Christ. (Believe it or not, they actually had some good qualities.) Lee makes a compelling case that a similar lay movement is already taking place in the American Catholic Church. The middle of the book (Chapters III through V) details what the author calls the "pile up of revolutions" over the past 450 years that have shaped our cultures and led to the development of the current "hidden revolution" in the Church. This part of the book is well researched among a variety of disciples and presented as supporting documentation. Like all such documentation, it is scholarly and considerably less provocative than the rest of the book. While it could have been reduced to just one chapter and still made his case effectively, it is, nonetheless, worth reading, as is the Bernard Loomer lecture "Two Kinds of Power" which is appendixed to the book. This is exciting stuff!!! "Future Church of 140 B.C.E." is must reading for all Catholics (cleric and lay) who take seriously the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church, and who expect to spend the rest of their faith-lives in the future.