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BOOK REVIEWS 493 Yves Congar, Theologian of the Church. Edited by GABRIEL FLYNN. Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs 32. Louvain: Peters, 2005. Pp. 503. $45.00 (paper). ISBN 90-429-1668-0. ThoughYves Congar was widely read, especially in Europe, "Congar studies" hardly existed before 8 December 1994, when Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal. Since then, interest has grown steadily in the French Dominican's writings. Gabriel Flynn presents a commemorative volume, derived from a symposium in Dublin, Ireland in 2004, to mark the centenary of Congar's birth. Contributors span the political and ecclesial spectrum of Continental and North American Catholic theology, non-Catholic Eastern and Western Christianity, and the allied disciplines of history and philosophy. Although papers from similar symposia in Rome and Toulouse have been published, this is the first volume in English to analyze Congar's thought from so many disparate perspectives. Flynn deserves commendation for meticulously presenting a highly useful text with notes to spur on more Congar studies. The same passionate spirit that drove Congar to write voluminously inspires Flynn in his "Introduction," situated within the new evangelization. Likewise, Flynn's "Epilogue" pleads for a "new reception" of Congar's writings and Vatican II's texts. His extremely useful bibliography and index will greatly assist this new reception. Between the introduction and epilogue, twenty scholars in four prefaces and seventeen chapters assess Congar's work. The chapters are divided into four parts: Yves Congar: Theologian; Yves Congar: Ecumenist; Yves Congar: Historian of Ecclesiology; and Yves Congar and the Theology of Interreligious Dialogue. Among these Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant bishops, cardinals, laity, ministers, and priests, one finds the extremes of hagiography, on the one hand, and critical dismissivness, on the other. Flynn contributes two chapters himself. In "Yves Congar and Catholic Church Reform: A Renewal ofthe Spirit," the Irish theologian gives a favorable exposition of Congar's possibly most original, important, and, thus, influential work, Vraie et fausse reforme dans l'Eglise. Flynn finds Congar's ideas of Church reform as relevant today as ever, and an evident line of continuity exists from Congar's ideas through Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II via Vatican IL In "Cardinal Congar's Ecumenism: An 'Ecumenical Ethics' for Reconciliation?" Flynn argues quite convincingly one main point. "[T]he acceptance of ecumenism as an ethical imperative for the Churches would give new impetus to ecumenical endeavors." While Flynn evidences the dramatic change in the moral landscape since Congar received his ecumenical vocation in 1930, his thesis, as well as certain ecumenical endeavors, is mortally threatened by what Pope Ratzinger calls "the dictatorship of relativism." Still, Flynn shows his faithful discipleship to Congar by organizing, executing, and publishing the papers of this landmark symposium. Four prefaces crown this volume in a nod of acknowledgment and gratitude to Congar's ecumenical vocation. Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., leads off these personal reminiscences, including his now famous appraisal that Vatican II 494 BOOK REVIEWS "could almost be called Congar's council" (27). Kallistos Ware, distinguished Oxford don and Orthodox Bishop of Diokleia, never met Congar face to face, but became so completely captivated one day by reading his Lay People in the Church, that Ware forgot lunch, tea, and supper. Kenneth Stevenson, Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth, also encountered Congar through books and the spilling over of new ideas from the Catholic Church into other Churches while traveling in France during Vatican II. Finally, Marc Leinhard, Honorary Dean of the Protestant Faculty of Theology of Strasbourg and Formerly President of the Directoire of the Church of the Confession ofAugsburg of Alsace and Lorraine, details his personal collaboration with Congar, including Vocabulaire oecumenique. Although not included as a preface, Karl Cardinal Lehmann's short chapter in part 2, "Cardinal Yves Congar: A Man of the Church," easily fits the same personal style, affirming that "far too much of his work has already gone unnoticed" (164). One of Congar's monumental works, Tradition and Traditions: An Historical and Theological Essay, has enticed well-known American Evangelical theologians, like Scott Hahn, to enter the Catholic Church. Interestingly, the first chapter after the prefaces is an article by an Evangelical...

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