Leaving Christendom for Good : Church-World Dialogue in a Secular Age

Leaving Christendom for Good argues that the Catholic Church has yet to fully implement the insights contained in Vatican II’s dialogical view of the church’s mission and place in society. The book explores the requirements of true dialogue, its theological meaning, and its immense benefits for church life today.

Leaving Christendom for Good argues that the solution to some of the most troubling tensions in the life of the Catholic Church since Vatican II can be found in the council’s document Gaudium et spes. This text’s view of the church’s mission and social relationships as dialogical has the capacity to liberate. Part One studies the contemporary place of religion—with particular reference to Charles Taylor’s groundbreaking work, A Secular Age—and examines Gaudium et spes’s dialogical view of the church-world relationship. Part Two explores what true dialogue entails and how it is best understood theologically, engaging critically with Joseph Ratzinger’s view of the church-world relationship. The book’s final chapter considers two practical implications of its argument: how evangelization can be best understood today, and how the church can best approach issues in the public sphere.