Reviews for Focus Your Day

The average rating for Focus Your Day based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-08-05 00:00:00 Tim Williams Dulles follows the model of H. Richard Neibuhr in Christ and Culture in proposing five models for the church: institutional, communion, sacramental, herald, and servant. He weighs the strengths and deficiencies of each model and their biblical warrants. He then assesses each model in terms of eschatology, ecumenicity, how we think about ministry under each model, and the relation of models of the church to models of revelation (on which Dulles has also written). He concludes by arguing that all the models are necessary although none is sufficient in itself. He also proposes his own model of the church as a community of disciples as one that may synthesize these various models. Although the book is written by a cardinal in the Roman Catholic church and reflects that Catholic conviction that the Roman church is The Church, there is an openness to other churches. And the models find counterparts in many other communions and have been widely referenced by writers on ecclesiology and missiology. My edition, revised in 2002, also includes an assessment of the ecclesiology of John Paul II, particularly the personalist elements of his theology as applied to ecclesiology.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-30 00:00:00 Florencio Lopez While not having been active in the field for nearly twenty years, I am astonished on how readable, cogent, and nuanced Avery Cardinal Dulles' book is. Hard to believe that it was written in 1974 but is still applicable to today's Church. His eminence examines Roman Catholic ecclesiology through five different models: Church as Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, and Servant. A very good read for anyone wishing to have a deeper understanding Roman Catholic ecclesiology. A side note, Cardinal Dulles was a convert to Roman Catholicism. He was the son of John Foster Dulles (for whom the DC airport was named). Foster Dulles, besides being the Cold War warrior Secretary of State for most of the Eisenhower Administration, was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. "Av the Brave" converted, and became a Jesuit priest. This gentle, erudite, and prayerful man was not only a giant in 20th century Catholic theology, but also a very much loved and respected man. Late in his life he was elevated to Cardinal-Priest (Jesuits are prohibited from accepting ecclesiastical titles unless specifically order by the Pontiff). He recently died in his 90s at the Jesuit Residence at Fordham University.