Walter Kasper, The Catholic Church: Nature, Reality and Mission (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), xiv + 463 Pps., $60.00
Cardinal Walter Kasper was President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This book aims to combine academic study with pastoral and ecumenical insight on the Catholic Church and for the Catholic Church. The book covers three main topics: the nature, the reality, and the mission of the Church (he uses the term Church as referring to the Catholic Church, note). Kasper notes that the Church is lovely, in spite of its imperfections and weaknesses. It is this beauty that he demonstrates in this book, showing how the Church can remain the Church of Christ, while at the same time speak to contemporary society. In what follows, I will develop more so the entailments of the book.
In this book, Kasper develops an outline of Catholic ecclesiology largely from a pneumatological perspective, as he takes his lead from the Creed in which the Church stands within the context of the confession of the Spirit. This book, it should be noted, does not seek to provide a new Catholic ecclesiology, but rather, a renewed one. It expounds the question of the Church in light of the question of God and of the message of his kingdom in such a way that the Church is properly situated both biblically and existentially. Asserted is the notion that the Church can have relevance for the individual and society if, and only if, it is certain about its own identity. He notes throughout challenges that face the Church, such as apathy amongst its members, and the long-term trend of overall decreasing attendance. The renewal of the Church entails the critically constructive reappropriation of what in the Tradition has proven to be lasting, precious, and valid. The Church, Kasper claims in this book, can only survive the storms to which it is expose if it has deep roots.
The program of the Church is ultimately not self-directed but rather remains oriented towards the finalization of the arrival of the kingdom of God and the spiritual healing of the human race. In sum, this book seeks to contribute to the renewal of the Catholic Church. I recommend it to those who have interests in Catholic theology, as well as ecclesiology in general.
Bradford McCall
Holy Apostles College and Seminary