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Richard Gaillardetz brilliantly captures the dynamics of the church today, both in theological terms (as a people called by Jesus and sent into the whole world), and in social terms (at the juncture in history when Christianity has become a world religion and the church has become a world church). Integrating traditional ecclesiologies of the North with emerging insights from Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia, Gaillardetz helps us understand what happens when the church takes cues not just from Scripture and Tradition, but also from women, Asian and African religions, and the challenge of promoting justice and peace in the face of globalization and the environmental crisis.
He has added a new preface and conclusion to this edition, which relates the themes of this volume to the ecclesiological developments under Pope Francis
Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz is the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College and the current chair of the BC Theology department. Dr. Gaillardetz previously taught at the University of Toledo from 2001 to 2011 as the Thomas and Margaret Murray and James J. Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo and at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Theology in Houston from 1991 to 2001. He received a BA in Humanities from the University of Texas, an MA in Biblical Theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and both an MA and PhD from the University of Notre Dame in Systematic Theology. He has published numerous articles and has authored or edited thirteen books.
“Grounded in decades of research, teaching, and writing, Richard Gaillardetz has gifted us here with the fruit of a lifetime of faithful Catholic scholarship. His work on a Catholic ecclesiology for a world-church has been remarkably prescient of the global, pastoral vision of Pope Francis. I enthusiastically recommend this revised edition, especially with its new final chapter.” — Ormond Rush (Australian Catholic University)
