The overall goal of this work is to “to contribute effective pastoral and evangelistic strategies to engage our time and our culture” (p. 5)
Deacon Scott McKellar, Book Review: University of Mary and Monsignor James P. Shea, From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age, University of St. Mary (2020)
Executive Summary
The overall goal of this work is to “to contribute effective pastoral and evangelistic strategies to engage our time and our culture” (p. 5). It is asserted that in ever age there is an overarching “vision” or ethos which governs our thinking. In relation to the church it is asserted that these are the apostolic mode which is countercultural and confronts society with a new and distinctively Christian vision, and the Christendom mode operates in those cultures where the basic fabric of culture has been formed by a Christian vision. The strengths and weakness of each mode are highlighted. It is taken as self-evident that we are no longer in a Christendom culture, yet many American Catholics still have a Christendom mentality. To overcome this problem Msgr. Shea gives us an eight-point pastoral strategy for address the apostolic time we live in. Our key task in the current age is the conversion of the mind to new way of seeing.
Chapter 1: The Place of a Ruling Imaginative Vision in Human Culture
The authorship of this work appears to be shared with the University of Mary. For the purpose of this review I will refer to Monsignor James P. Shea as the author. Msgr. James Shea, identifies the purpose of his essay as his attempt “to contribute effective pastoral and evangelistic strategies to engage our time and our culture” (p. 5) In his first chapter discusses the place of “an imaginative ruling vision in human cultures.” He understands this an often unconscious ruling vison or worldview which dominates the thinking of a particular culture and time. He notes that this can operate at an individual or societal level. Using examples for history and the book of Acts he highlights two basic or “ideal” modes by which Christianity interacts with human societies, an apostolic mode and a Christendom mode.
While he admits that this may be somewhat more dynamic in reality, the apostolic mode is countercultural and confronts society with a new and distinctively Christian vision, while the Christendom mode operates in those cultures where the basic fabric of culture has been formed by a Christian vision.
Chapter 2: Christendom and Apostolic: Advantages and Disadvantages
In his chapter two, Msgr. Shea explores the strengths and weakness of Christendom versus apostolic modes of operation. He notes that in Christendom culture the “success of the Church’s missionary activity in winning converts and in vivifying the wider culture” has brought the general culture into greater alignment with the truth and goodness of the Gospel. He notes that in this situation the primary need is maintenance. Quoting Pope Paul VI, Msgr. Shea notes that this means “to deepen, consolidate, nourish and make ever more pure the faith of those who are already called believers.”
In this setting there is always the constant danger of assimilating the Gospel to non-Christian cultural beliefs. On the other hand, Christendom culture can foster great cultural achievements and found institutions which have significate cultural depth and authority. In Christendom culture the fundamental laws basic moral understanding of culture are rooted in Christian truth, so members of society can rely of wider culture for support.
On the negative side there may be tendency for Christians to be lukewarm in their pursuit of the faith, and to be conventional and to lose the radical character and dynamism. He notes that the greatest sin is hypocrisy. I find it interesting that the most widely articulated desire of Gen Z Christians is for “authenticity” which seem to be the counterpoint to hypocrisy.
He notes that the church can become institutionalized in a negative sense and the priesthood can become a career path or merely a job rather than a mission. Church leaders become “system managers” and “conflict-avoiding administrators” and faith is reduced to its visible expressions. Msgr. Shea argues this may lead more subtly to counterfeit movements of genuine Christianity. I’m not sure this is limited to times of Christendom culture—but is it more prevalent in this time? The imperative for mission wanes, and become this preserve of a few “missionary” religious orders who work in faraway lands. One could cite the recent survey of Christians which revealed the majority of Catholics were completely unfamiliar with Jesus’ “great commission.”
The church in an apostolic situation operates very differently. While there is still a need for maintenance of those of those already in the church, the main focus is on apostolic witness and building a distinctively Christian culture. The wider influence of society is constantly working against the Christian vision. He notes that the “life of faith is more intense and therefore more attractive, more evidently life-changing” (p. 26). The “Gospel attracts many high-hearted people who have a strong desire for God and for goodness” (p. 26). There is a greater purity of intension among church leaders and a higher standard of holiness among the clergy. The church is more self-conscious, with a greater sense of the distinctive call. Confessing Christian face hostility, martyrdom, the and the regular possibility of suffering for the faith. There can therefore be a “tendency to discouragement and a waning of confidence in the power of the Gospel” (p. 27). Other dangers include the temptation to be overly rigorist in faith and morals, or to become sectarian and to withdraw for the wider culture.
Chapter 3: The Current Climate
In Chapter three Msgr. Shea explores the current climate in which we live. He points out that we do not get to choose which age we live in, Christendom or Apostolic. He points out that clearly we are no longer in a Christendom culture, yet he points out that many American Catholics still have a Christendom mentality. Key institutions of our society, and older institutional strategies, are no longer in tune with our wider culture. He notes, “The children of Catholic parents often leave the Faith; Catholic schools and universities do not graduate serious Catholic believers; parishes do not produce vocations to the priesthood and religious life; religious orders shrivel” (p. 32).
Msgr. Shea does note the Catholic counterexample of new religious movements where apostolic zeal and apostolic strategies result in impressive results. More fundamentally he notes,
Our problem is rather that much of the Church is still in Christendom mode, either seriously compromised by the ruling vision of the wider culture or using outmoded strategies that were devised for a different context, and so it is unable to cope with the currents of the wider culture. The task at hand is to find ways successfully to engage members in the Church—and those outside of it—with the truths of the Faith. (p. 33).
Chapter 4: Developing a Pastoral Strategy for this Transitional Time
In Chapter 4 Msgr. Shea gives us a eight-point pastoral strategy for address the time we live in.
These strategies are:
- Gaining an apostolic attitude
- Refusing to be trapped by social analysis
- Maintaining and using institutions differently
- Establishing and strengthening practices that incarnate the Christian vision
- Rethinking priestly life and education in light of the current cultural context
- Allocating resources with apostolicity in mind
- Being willing to put up with a certain apostolic “messiness”
- Expecting cultural influence to be exercised primarily by impressive witness
In order to gain an apostolic attitude, we must first recognize that we are in an apostolic time. The Church must trust in the power and goodness of the Gospel message. Everyone needs to be convinced of the bad news of sin, and the good news of the mercy of God to set us free. As Msgr. Shea puts it,
They need to know, from their own experience, that obedience to the Gospel is perfect freedom, that holiness leads to happiness, that a world without God is a desolate wasteland, and that new life in Christ transforms darkness into light.
I am concerned here that, while this is all true, there is no specific discussion of exactly what the Gospel message is and how to bring about, facilitate, or inspire this conversion.
Msgr. Shea talks about “hereditary Catholics” who are bound to the Church by “sentimentality” and thinks they will likely just leave the church (though he is sympathetic to trying to reach them). He talks the counterpoint of a way of discipleship that will “challenge” the faithful at “every level of their being” and Faith that will be sustained in conflict with those around them, but this remains very theoretical.
My deeper concern here is a that the Christendom model was/had a “learn them to save them” model which generally assumed everyone was already converted, while the apostolic model (consistent with the Church’s catechetical documents) is based on the universal need for evangelization to take place before catechesis. Properly understood the “way of discipleship” begins with a call to conversion and a personal decision to put Jesus at the center of one’s life, then moves on to mature catechesis. I think Msgr. Shea would agree with the destination, I just not sure how he thinks we get there.
He also articulates a “remnant” theology. Since he proposes the response to the Gospel will be mixed, the Church will by necessity grow smaller. He cites the example of Jesus to whom only a few responded? Yet the early Church grew exponentially in the early years in the book of Acts. 3000 at Pentecost, and Acts 2:47 reports, “Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” While ultimately it is the Lord who added to their numbers, we are still responsible for our cooperation in this ministry. In my opinion, too often “remnant” theology gives us an excuse to be passive or to make convenient excuses for our own ineffectiveness.
Moving on, Msgr. Shea asks us not to be trapped by social analysis. Whatever can be learned from surveys of belief and trend for the future, they do not tell us about the presence of the Holy Spirit of the power of prayer. He gives a number of historical examples of Church being in bad situations and experiencing a tremendous out pouring of the spirit which resulted in amazing apostolic growth. Again the essay is a bit foggy on how this takes place, Msgr. Shea says, “This regeneration happens when the members of the Church take stock of their times, renew their commitment to the whole of the Gospel, and place themselves at the service of Christ” (p. 41).
He also argues that we need to maintain and use institutions differently. The way Church institutions function is related to the two modes of relating to culture. In an apostolic time, where culture is hostile to the faith, Church institutions can only maintain their distinctively Christian character by energetically resisting conformity with the wider atmosphere (p. 43). If it tries to operate I “business as usual” maintenance mode, “in a fairly short space of time, as the institution conforms to dominant cultural forces, its inner spirit will have been lost to Christ” (p. 43).
Msgr. Shea suggests that unless we take decisive action, the mission of Church institutions will drift into compromise with the culture’s ruling spirit. He notes, “the typical error of Church institutions is simply to avoid paying attention to questions of overall vision, to assume that such matters are either unimportant or are more or less settled, and to limit themselves to technical and administrative goals” (p. 47).
Next he argues that we need to establish and strengthen practices that incarnate the Christian vision. This section is more theological. It relates to the principle of sacramentality or the visible manifesting the invisible in the visible especially the incarnation. He argues that “Ideas that are not incarnated in the stuff of the world soon lose their hold on our minds” (p. 49). In apostolic times, “Christians will need to find ways to create a societal architecture that incarnates an increasingly counter-cultural Christian vision” (p. 49). He sees this as manifest in many practices of daily life but particularly in Liturgy. He chastises post Vatican II “liturgical experimentation” which incorporated the “secular vision of the broader society.” He does not specify wht he thinks the “proper ordering of liturgy” might look like, but it doesn’t sound modern.
Msgr. Shea’s next principle is the rethinking of priestly life and education in light of the current cultural context. He has in mind “providing new avenues of priestly life” directed at “the new demands of an apostolic time.” Specifically, not only theological training but “also a conversion of mind and vision” and “transformation of behavior” that counters the wider culture. This includes “personal healing, intellectual conversion, and cultural ‘detox.’” (p. 53). Once ordained there must be a continued atmosphere of community, so that we are not sending priests alone and unprepared in the current cultural context. This not just about emotional support but a kind of fraternal apprenticeship and common life with apostolic mission in mind. It should lead to clarity, holiness and apostolic zeal and a sustainable life of joy in service and imitation of Christ (p. 56).
Next Msgr. Shea advocates thinking seriously about the allocation of resources with apostolic outreach in mind. While not abandoning the existing institutional structures, resources need to be allocated to initiatives that produce conversions, “especially among the young” (p. 57).
In a business model no successful business would continue to fund product lines or services that repeatedly failed to sell. Sometimes market share can be recovered by advertising, but often something much more creative is needed. Clearly the church is not a business, and we need to be concerned about every soul, but Msgr. Shea is advocating that we think seriously about how we allocate our resources, keeping apostolic outreach in mind. My own analogy to business relates to the effectiveness of apostolic outreach.
Msgr. Shea also points out that we need to be willing to put up with a certain apostolic “messiness.” When genuine conversions take place, especially among the young, this can generate a lot of very helpful excitement and energy.
There can be a downside to this which needs careful shepherding. He points out that we may see, unenlightened zeal, rigoristic attitudes, and idiosyncratic or even heretic stances and rivalries. Some might be tempted to stultify such activities in the name of routine and decorum, not wishing to cause “trouble” or disturbance. But he notes, “Sometimes it is better to tame the over-zealous than to try to convert the skeptical and inspire the apathetic (p. 59).
In his final strategy, Msgr. Shea points out that in apostolic time cultural influence is to be exercised primarily by impressive witness. While it may still be possible to influence culture from the inside, more and more a change of attitude is needed, the focus needs to be on authentic witness to the true vocation of the church lived with heroic vigor. He recalls Pope Paul VI assertion that modern man is more willing to listen to witness than to teachers.
But what does this mean? Msgr. Shea notes that this is often interpreted in terms of impressive and visible moral actions such as those of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. But a closer look at the Missionaries of Charity reveals that their witness incudes a compelling incarnation of the faith which is a whole vision of the world understood through Christ.
One not uncommon error in the area of witness is the temptation to adjust or do away with unpopular doctrines and disciplines to keep unsatisfied Catholics in the pews. He notes, “if the world will not allow itself to be raised to the level of the Church, the Church will have to lower itself to the level of the world” (p. 62). Msgr. Shea sees this a s a betrayal of the distinctive witness of the Gospel.
It is well to point out that he has in mind the actual content of the Faith (the deposit of faith) and not necessarily the preservation of one generation’s liturgical customs, artistic choices, and small ‘t’ traditions. An interesting side note is that while the Church may demand more of Christians in terms of counter cultural witness to society, it will demand less of non-Christians. In Christendom culture everyone is expected to rise to a certain common level of moral behavior. In a pluralistic and predominantly post–Christian society, it is not reasonable to insist that everyone in society be ‘Christian.’
Chapter 5: The Key Task: Conversion of the Mind to a New Way of Seeing
In his final chapter before a brief conclusion, Msgr. Shea introduced what he terms as the “key task” of the Church in the current age. This is the conversion of the mind to a new way of seeing. This is described as “the presentation of the Gospel in such a way that the minds of its hearers can be given the opportunity to be transformed, converted from one way of looking at the world to a different way” (p. 65). In my opinion the details on the content of the Gospel narrative and specifically ‘how’ hearers can be given the opportunity to be transformed remains a bit foggy.
In Christendom culture, Msgr. Shea proposes that this means “taking the moral teaching of the church more seriously” (p. 65). Given the shared doctrinal framework of most Christians in Christendom times, the focus is on deeper conversion by pursuing the faith more seriously. He rightly notes that someone on the outside might think the faith is all about following the rules or living a “life of moral probity” (p. 66). Pope Francis has spoken repeatedly about the danger of homilies which are focused on “illusive moralizing” or “mere moralizing” which I thin touches on this theme.
In apostolic times, one should assume that most of the hearers are “unconverted or half-converted in mind and imagination and have embraced to some degree the dominant non-Christian vision” (p. 66). The new evangelization aims at the “renewal of the mind.” This takes place by offering a different narrative which introduces “key elements of the integrated Christian vision within which the moral and spiritual disciplines of the Church imposes find their place” (p. 66). Thinking of the transition between the Christendom and apostolic times I think he rightly points out the mistake of preaching a solely moral vision of the faith the mind has been transformed by the renewed the integrated Christian vision, or what he calls a “sacramental vision of the world” (p. 66).
Clear Msgr. Shea envisions this as a “conversion of mind” which impacts all aspects of life. He talks about an “exposition of the Gospel” in preaching, teaching, liturgy, architecture, and the arts which leads to a conversion of mind. Frankly this still remains pretty vague. Furthermore, we normally talk about a conversion of the heart rather than the mind. Obviously we need an integral formation of the whole person, but this use of language seems to imply that what is needed is teachings which bring about right thinking, without any mention of the will. As Msgr. Shea sees it the need or “great apostolic task” of our time is to gain a genuine conversion of mind and vision.
Perhaps we need to step back and see the audience of Msgr. Shea’s vison as a Catholic University. This would be a significant goal for the faculty, and the students are essentially a captive audience. I do believe this would have a significant impact at that Catholic university or perhaps a high school, but if we broaden the circle to parish life and even further to many Catholics who are on the fringes of the faith, then we are not going to get this group of people to come and sit at our feet and allow themselves to be formed by this vision. Perhaps this is why he embraces a remnant theology (p. 39) as it sounds like he is willing to essentially right off those who are ready to ride his “renewed mind” bus. These people simply refuse to respond to the Gospel.
Finally, Msgr. Shea articulates the content or essence of this overall narrative and imaginative context of the Faith which allow an integral view of the cosmos. Under the heading “Concerning the Christian Way of Seeing” he describes a “drama” which involves both the visible and invisible worlds, a God who created, and following this a cosmic struggle and ensuing battle for human life for good and evil.
This results in “the fearful and dignified burden of choice: we need to take a side” (p. 70). We are each created for happiness and even “to share in the very nature of God” (p. 71). Our intended destiny was left at great risk as many turned their backs on God and became enslaved to evil and deformed. God’s loving answer was the incarnation. God came to teach us the truth, to give his life as an offering, and to adopt us into his own divine nature. God did not just come to save us from outside but “conferred on us the high dignity of becoming one of us” (p. 72).
Now we are “creatures on trial” with “two and only two destinations” (p. 72) He notes that, “For each human, both are real possibilities, and there is no evading the choice: we must seize the one or the other” (p. 72) and further, “we are creatures undergoing a testing of heart, awaiting our true home… [at the end] Christ will then determine who has responded to the free gift of forgiveness and so has been found worthy to ‘enter life’” (p. 73).
The point of this overall narrative and our response to it, is that now Christians “see everything differently in light of the extraordinary drama they have come to understand” (p. 74). The faith is more than assent to doctrinal truths and moral precepts but is now a daily experience which arises from the encounter with Christ.
As counterpoint to the Christian way of seeing, Msgr. Shea quickly highlights some modern mythic principles overarching narrative visions which interfere with this understanding. The first is the idea of faith in progress, or the notion that we are progressing through time from a lower to a higher state which will lead humanity to perfect peace and contentment. This translates to the moral realm, with the assumption that we should update our moral thinking along modern lines. Perhaps connected with this is the belief that we should deny the Fall as part of the explanation for human evil and to marginalize God as an actor in human history.
This leads to a kind of practical atheism and the belief that religion should be a private or personal matter. The incessant focus on the here and now leads this vision to be the antithesis of a sacramental vison with a disappearance of any notion of final judgement. Perhaps the most important concept in the progressive lexicon is the notion of freedom. But this becomes an empty freedom to choose or do whatever I like, rather than the traditional notion of freedom to pursue the good. My choice creates an autonomous right and wrong based on my self-identity and God becomes an enemy because he interferes with my autonomy. Finally, the progressive vision swirls about with slogans about the vacuous pursuit of consumer contentment.
In conclusion our task is to recognize the age we are in and to follow the Holy Spirit to engage this world with the Gospel.
Response and Evaluation:
The first premise of this essay that our culture generally operates through an overarching “vision” which controls or at the very least highly influences its thinking, makes sense. This worldview or ethos, however, likely has a wider construct than just an application to the church. In relation to the church, it makes sense to see the two modes of thinking as apostolic and Christendom. A similar model is proposed by Fr. James Mallon, in his Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission (2014). In relation to the specific eight strategies proposed, it would seem self-evident that we need to gain an apostolic attitude but as mentioned above how to gain this attitude is not well developed. Msgr. Shea asks us not to be trapped by social analysis which makes sense.
Perhaps more profound is the notion that need to maintain and use institutions differently. Are we really aligning our resources to the apostolic needs of our times? Again the comments on the need to establish and strengthen practices that incarnate the Christian vision remains a bit fussy. What does this concretely mean? How might this integrate with the Second Vatican Council’s notions of the universal call to holiness and the fundamental “secularity” of the lay vocation in the midst of the world? One can easily applaud the effort the rethinking of priestly life and education in light of the current cultural context. Perhaps the strongest point is thinking seriously about the allocation of resources with apostolic outreach in mind. Could this strategy be combined with maintaining intuitions differently? While not abandoning the existing institutional structures, resources need to be allocated to initiatives that produce conversions, “especially among the young” (p. 57).
This point seems to point ahead to the key task of conversion highlighted in his conclusion. Two side notes to this are being willing to put up with a certain apostolic “messiness” and the importance of “witness.”
All of this leads to his key point which is described a “conversion of mind.” This is a scriptural phrase, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Ro 12:2). There is a danger here though, by mentioning “mind” [tou noos] we may gain the false impression that the principal task St. Paul advocates here in Romans 12 is one of education. Joseph A. Fitzmyer notes,
The metamorphosis is not external but inward, involving the renewal of the nous, that aspect of the human being which is considered the seat of intellectual and moral judgment …. This metamorphosis is brought about by the indwelling Spirit of God that “leads” those incorporated into Christ through faith and baptism and makes of them “children of God” (8:12–14; cf. Col 3:10; Eph 4:23; Titus 3:5). The “mind” or the “intellect” is to be ruled no more by the passions of the body. Cf. 1 Cor 2:15–16: “we have the mind of Christ.”
Joseph A. Fitzmyer S.J., Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 33, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 641.
Education is not the same as discipleship. The renewal of the mind is a work of the Holy Spirit and is brought about by communion with Christ (Romans 12:3-8). This is not to dismiss the importance of learning about the faith, but evangelization precedes catechesis and catechesis is not the first task during apostolic times. The typical Christendom approach is to fix things with more and better teaching rather than to return first to the fundamentals of evangelization and then to offer catecheses to the converted. Catechesis without prior evangelization often sounds like moralizing and make no sense to those who hear it.
The final problem in this section is that there is a very fuzzy description of what the message of the Gospel is and how to present it, and how to call people to action. This description occurs in pages 70-72. The essay actual seems aware of this weakness. It would have been nice to see an awareness of, and integration of Sherry Weddell’s, Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus (2012), as well as the later process of discipleship.
Overall, I would say this is a very helpful work which challenges the outmoded and ineffective thinking of may Catholics still operating in the Christendom mode.
Hither, Thither, and Yon 
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