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A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers

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Description:It cannot be denied that the Catholic Church like the other main churches in the West has undergone deep and lasting changes since the 1960s. Two changes stand as paramount. First, the Catholic Church is transitioning from a majority church or a closed Catholic subculture to becoming, in many countries, a minority church, operating in a predominantly secular and competitive environment with a smaller committed following and with less institutional resources at its disposal. Second, the ways in which people relate to the Church are changing as well. Commitment is no longer self-evident or deferential. Once characterized as a flock led by their shepherds, those interested and active in the Church today exhibit a more critical and seeking attitude. These developments, as well as some other important trends regarding the role of the Catholic Church in society, will be examined in the first, empirical part of this book; in the second, philosophical and theological part, the consequences of the new situation for the Catholic Church and its theology will be studied. The present chapter, which serves as an introduction to this volume and builds on its contributions, is focused on characterizing the present-day relationship between the Church and seekers and on exploring, on a basic level, some new opportunities for a Catholic minority church to continue to appeal to larger sections of the population.The analyses and prospects presented in this volume are, of course, heavily influenced by the situation of the Church and its societal context in the countries in which we, as contributors, are living and working, i.e. Belgium and the Netherlands, and, for one author, Germany and Austria. These European countries are regarded to be highly secularized, meaning that the main Christian churches have lost much of their former societal significance. We are aware that another territorial vantage point, e.g., Italy or the Philippines, might have given rise to different perspectives, e.g., a more self-assured view in which it is assumed that religion, in general, and the Catholic Church, in particular, will retain their central position in society. The experience of Northwestern Europe, however, is different. What is more, we are convinced that far-reaching secularization and pluralization, and the concomitant shift towards a more fragile minority position of the main churches in this part of the world will become, in due course, the basic condition for most religions in other countries on the globe as well. Hence, we hope that the focus of this book on the highly secularized countries of Northwestern Europe will also be instructive to researchers working in other, at least for now, less secularized countries and continents.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers. To get started finding A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: 302

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: The council for Research in Values and Philosophy

Release: 2015

ISBN: 1565183010

Description: It cannot be denied that the Catholic Church like the other main churches in the West has undergone deep and lasting changes since the 1960s. Two changes stand as paramount. First, the Catholic Church is transitioning from a majority church or a closed Catholic subculture to becoming, in many countries, a minority church, operating in a predominantly secular and competitive environment with a smaller committed following and with less institutional resources at its disposal. Second, the ways in which people relate to the Church are changing as well. Commitment is no longer self-evident or deferential. Once characterized as a flock led by their shepherds, those interested and active in the Church today exhibit a more critical and seeking attitude. These developments, as well as some other important trends regarding the role of the Catholic Church in society, will be examined in the first, empirical part of this book; in the second, philosophical and theological part, the consequences of the new situation for the Catholic Church and its theology will be studied. The present chapter, which serves as an introduction to this volume and builds on its contributions, is focused on characterizing the present-day relationship between the Church and seekers and on exploring, on a basic level, some new opportunities for a Catholic minority church to continue to appeal to larger sections of the population.The analyses and prospects presented in this volume are, of course, heavily influenced by the situation of the Church and its societal context in the countries in which we, as contributors, are living and working, i.e. Belgium and the Netherlands, and, for one author, Germany and Austria. These European countries are regarded to be highly secularized, meaning that the main Christian churches have lost much of their former societal significance. We are aware that another territorial vantage point, e.g., Italy or the Philippines, might have given rise to different perspectives, e.g., a more self-assured view in which it is assumed that religion, in general, and the Catholic Church, in particular, will retain their central position in society. The experience of Northwestern Europe, however, is different. What is more, we are convinced that far-reaching secularization and pluralization, and the concomitant shift towards a more fragile minority position of the main churches in this part of the world will become, in due course, the basic condition for most religions in other countries on the globe as well. Hence, we hope that the focus of this book on the highly secularized countries of Northwestern Europe will also be instructive to researchers working in other, at least for now, less secularized countries and continents.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers. To get started finding A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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A Catholic Minority Church in a World of Seekers

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