Today, many years after the Second Vatican Council, there can be little doubt that the notion of
communio ("communion") is at the center of Catholicism's renewed understanding of the Church. In
Heart of the World David L. Schindler shows that
communio is also at the heart of the Church's worldly mission.
Examining liberalism in politics, economics, and the academy, Schindler exposes its inadequate theology of human freedom and "worldly" autonomy, while suggesting how communio both transforms and protects freedom and autonomy in their varied cultural expressions. In the spirit of Pope John Paul II's call for a "new evangelization," Schindler contributes to what the Pope himself has strongly reaffirmed as "the positive value of an authentic theology of integral human liberations" (Centesimus Annus, 26).
Any concerned with the problem of nature and grace or with the Church's engagement with culture in a contemporary context will find this book not only a useful resource but also a spur to further reflection.