Ecclesial Cybernetics by Patrick Granfield (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 973 Ecclesial Cybernetics. By PATRICK GRANFIELD. New York: Macmillan, 1973. Pp. 280. $8.95. The Church has survived persecutions, heresies, schisms, apostasies, and a host of other assaults upon its staying power. To this familiar catalog of institutional problems Patrick Granfield has now added the threat of entropy, "a random state of disorder" with affiicts "a closed system insulated from its environment." Where previously the blood of martyrs, councils, reforms, and other sustaining forces enabled the Church to ride out the storm, Granfield points out that now it is negative entropy which, apart from "the guarantee of indefectibility," will enable the Church "to persevere and flourish." In the perspective of cybernetic analysis negative entropy is a function of the flow of information within an organization. The more open a system is, the greater its interaction with its environment, then the greater are its possibilities for maintenance and development through an increased flow of information. Translating this mechanism into political terms, Granfield identifies an open system with democracy and thus arrives at the thesis of his book: "that the Church needs cybernetic reform through democratization." The author, a member of the faculty at the Catholic University of America, presents a well-developed case for his prescription. After introducing the reader to the perhaps unfamiliar world of cybernetics (the study of information transmission for communication and control in large organizations ), Granfield describes the current organizational framework of the Church. He then offers four case studies of the cybernetic model applied to decision-making within the Church. The issues of slavery, birth control, ecumenism, and priestly celibacy are analyzed in terms of the interaction of inputs, the conversion process, outputs and feedback. He concludes that such an approach " reveals the forces in conflict within the Church " and that these issues "reflect the growing demand for ecclesial democratization." Granfield then constructs a foundation for such a radical change in Church organization by examining the historical and theological justifications of ecclesial democracy. In this analysis he seeks to answer the question : "whether the democratic ideals of majoritarianism and decentralization are compatible with the hierarchic structure of the Church." He concludes that they are, while at the same time saving the other principles peculiar to ecclesial government, namely, the monarchical (papal) and the hierarchical (episcopal). Specifically, Granfield argues that it is the recognition of the egalitarian and the charismatic elements in the Church, implemented by the greater participation of the membership in selecting bishops and in other non-doctrinal decision-making, which can redress the current entropy-inducing imbalance among the three principles of Church government. 974 BOOK REVIEWS Granted the appropriateness and, indeed, the necessity of democratic reform within the Church, does democracy have a future in the Church, Granfield asks. Citing the immobility, ineffectuality, and isolation of the hierarchy and the docility and passivity of the lower clergy and the laity he recognizes that such a development will be most difficult, but not impossible , to achieve. This brings the author to his specific recommendatiom for implementing democracy within the Church: the fostering of commitment to community among the members; the development of a freer environment for dissent; a more highly developed system of communication; the use of study commissions as " input-processing " vehicles; and, last but not least, making the selection of bishops a community decision. This latter reform seems to be the major cybernetic mechanism of Granfield's hope for the democratization of the Church; appendices contain the 1971 plan for choosing bishops for the United States drawn up by the Canon Law Society of America, and the Vatican's norms for selecting bishops issued in 1972. Thus ends Granfield's highly innovative approach to the study of ecclesiology. There is much to approve of in Ecclesial Cybernetics. The author writers clearly and skillfully; he is exceptionally well-balanced in developing his insights into so complex a subject, and he provides a well-researched instrument for the benefit of readers who may seek additional enlightment. Theologians can find here a very competent effort to approach the study of the Church on an interdisciplinary basis. Latter-day-twentieth centurians may come to agree with Granfield that the cybernetic analysis of the Church...