Editorial

Ten of the dozen articles in this issue form a distinctive and distinguished collection with an editor’s introduction. They cover a range of topics: Scripture and liturgy; women and ministry; social, personal, and sexual ethics; ecumenism; religious freedom and inter-religious dialogue—all in relation to reflections on documents of the Second Vatican Council. They are distinguished from other such studies by being hammered out in accord with three sharply put questions by Professor Michael Attridge: (1) What the council taught, (2) what has happened in last fifty years, and (3) where the author sees the issue going in the next twenty-five years.

That last question, as Attridge explains, is what distinguishes the articles from other studies or reflections done in the last six years to celebrate the council’s fiftieth anniversary. In forecasting future directions each contributor has to consider the effect of Pope Francis, who has no personal connection with or stake in Vatican ii, his worldwide significance on church and society, and his reception of the documents.

The remaining two articles not of the collection are of a different tenor. One makes the case that inter-religious dialogue must be willing listen to secular voices as well as part of the faith and reasons dialectic. The other, closing the issue, brings into discussion Darwinian evolutionary theory. Main ideas of the theory fashioned a secular religious perspective as an alternative to the then-dominant version of Christianity. And the current outpouring of Darwinian books continues the preoccupation with religious themes and hence with the idea about ultimate concern.

More than a dozen books are reviewed in this issue. To name a few authors, the following have an intellectual connection with Canada: Richard Middletown, Gregory Baum, Douglas Farrow, and Charles Fensham.

Thumb through the issue to catch its intellectual breadth.