Solidarity with the World

"This splendid study rethinks the controverted categories mission and secularization. By widening the conversation to include Charles Taylor on secularization and Hans Urs Von Balthasar on mission and ecclesiology, the author aids us all. An important and original book."

--David Tracy, The University of Chicago



"If Charles Taylor's diagnosis of our secular age is on the mark, what should the Church do? Carolyn Chau takes on this important question with great insight, sympathy, and clarity. The result is an account of the Church's mission that is neither defensive nor capitulative, but offers Christ as a way of helping people realize their best selves. At the same time, Chau cuts through polarization in the Church to help the Church realize its best self. For the Church trying to find its footing in late modernity, this is a remarkably helpful and hopeful book."

--William T. Cavanaugh, DePaul University



"A marvelous book that brings Taylor's narrative reflections on secularization into conversation with Balthasar's dramatic recasting of theology. The consequent reframing of authenticity in terms of sanctity grounds an attractive account of the Church's urgent and challenging task of mission in a secular age. A must read for theologians and Christian leaders seeking to achieve the renewal envisioned by Vatican II."

--Dominic Doyle, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry



"The impetus of Chau's book helps the reader to reflect on the Church's challenge of the new evangelization in our post-Christian culture. She draws on Charles Taylor to show how the Church can communicate itself within secular modernity without losing sight of its essential mission. Through Balthasar's vision of person and communio she promotes an ecclesial spirituality, one that is committed to forming saints who are in solidarity with the world."

-- William T. McGrattan, Bishop of Peterborough