Will Pope Francis or a Successor Call a Vatican III Council? - by John Raymaker & Gerald Grudzen (Paperback)

About the Book

In this book Raymaker and Gruzden discuss how the world is being challenged due to globalization and secularization. The authors present to readers ways in which the Church is now trying to realistically assess the implications of modernism and postmodernism in a multicultural world.

Book Synopsis

In this book Raymaker and Gruzden discuss how the world is being challenged due to globalization and secularization. The authors present to readers ways in which the Church is now trying to realistically assess the implications of modernism and postmodernism in a multicultural world.

Review Quotes

Over sixty years since the close of the Second Vatican Council, it has become ever clearer that the church has arrived at a new moment in her history, what Pope Francis has called "a change of epoch." Climate change, pandemics, migration, economic and cultural globalization, the growing political power of women, the breakdown and rise of new ideologies, massive advances in the sciences and in technology, and fundamental shifts in gender gestalts are just a few of the factors that mark a world radically different from the world of the early 1960s. Within the church, questions about the role of the laity and forms of ministry continue to emerge, even as there has been a growing realization of the opportunities and challenges of deeply encountering other religions and spiritualities. The authors ask whether a new ecumenical council can help the church address the complex set of realities within which the church stands so as more effectively to promote the Gospel and Christian life. Grounded in their years of hands-on pastoral experience and a lived understanding of the global church, Grudzen and Raymaker propose a theologically-grounded rationale for a new council and sketch a hope-filled vision of the church of the future.

About the Author

John Raymaker spent twenty-five years as a missionary in Japan where he worked at the Tokyo Oriens Institute for Religious Research. He taught cultural anthropology and biblical studies at Junshin and Hosei Universities in Tokyo. He is the author of Pope Francis, Conscience of the World: Building Needed Bridges in a Troubled World.

Gerald Grudzen is the founder and president of Global Ministries University. He has worked on educational and development projects in Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt and now in Kenya for the past eight years in addition to his teaching in the United States. He is the author of Pope Francis, Conscience of the World: Building Needed Bridges in a Troubled World.