Sensing the Spirit: Toward the Future of Religious Life

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Drawing on the work of Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, this book examines how secular culture affects both the living of Christian discipleship today and impacts how religious congregations engage in their own renewal and future. It argues that religious communities can do more than improve and fix the out of date conditions they met in the renewal after Vatican II. Calling on environmental, sociological and theological insights, this book asks how the ongoing coming of the Kingdom in the Spirit brings new gifts for these times and how congregations might respond beyond restorative or post-Christian solutions to new challenges confronting them. This book offers a renewed meaning of religious life in secular life and the gift it offers and receives from every culture in which it is embedded.

Reviews

Clearly we receive far more than a simple sense of the Spirit in this masterful integration and reflection on the evolution of the theology and lived practices of religious life in the Church both for today, and for many days to come. -- James Bretzke, S.J., John Carroll University, USA
While religious life is thriving in certain parts of the Church, in Europe and North America it is experiencing widespread lack of appeal to new members and appears to be only a shadow of its former vital self. Building on her earlier studies of religious life and charism, Judith Merkle has given us an indispensable examination of the crisis religious life faces in the post-conciliar Church and in a world that has become dull to a sense of transcendence. This wise and hope-filled examination is must reading for men and women leaders of religious communities, their members, and all who treasure the rich heritage of religious life. -- John J. Burkhard, O.F.M. Conv., the former Washington Theological Union, USA
A richly challenging book which engages with significant contemporary theology in a reflection on religious life surviving beyond traditional cultural and religious interpretive patterns. Merkles analysis offers hope and vision in uncertain times. An essential read for those continuing to believe in the value of the consecrated life. -- Gemma Simmonds CJ, Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, UK

Author Bio

Judith Merkle is Professor of Religious Studies at Niagara University, USA.