by Colleen Gibson
Columnist
Review of:
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY: THE PROSPECT OF REFOUNDING
By Diarmuid O’Murchu
Published by Orbis Books, 272 pages, $26
For decades, debate has raged about what the future of religious life will look like. The answer, it seems, is that the future is unknown.
What is clear is that the reality of religious life has and will continue to change. Dramatic declines in membership, changing cultural norms and shifting social realities ensure that religious life in the 21st century must evolve to survive. This evolution requires that religious work to be ready for refounding when the time comes.
With this sense of an unknown, not necessarily unclear, future, Diarmuid O’Murchu, social psychologist and Missionary of the Sacred Heart, undertakes his landmark 25th book, Religious Life in the 21st Century: The Prospect of Refounding.