This is a title that came up in a clergy FB group when someone asked about good books on ecclesiology. So I went shopping....
THe book was originally written 40 years ago, with some expansion (the final chapter) added in 1987 and then an appendix (an essay about the ecclesiology of Pope John Paul II) added in this version. I think it would be interesting to ask Cardinal Dulles how he sees the patterns he identified in the first decade following Vatican II developing and being lived out in the 21st century.
Given that the author is a Cardinal, the book tends to skew toward a Roman Catholic perspective. however the methodology that Dulles uses was quite helpful. The 5 basic models (or perhaps schools of thought) that he lays out for understanding the church open up a number of possibilities.
In the end I tend to suggest that none of those models is what any one congregation should aim for. Each model adds something to our understanding. As is the case for much of the life of faith, any of our descriptors are only partial. The Church is more than any of them. Dulles talks about the element of Mystery, something that always fits when we try to explain how God is at work in the world,
I suspect that many people will find themselves drawn more to one of the 5 models than another. Personally I found things I really appreciated in at least 3 of them (community, sacrament, and servant) but, as I suggested above, the church will be at its best when it is an amalgam of all 5 -- probably an amalgam that itself shifts which model gets emphasized as circumstances dictate and God touches the hearts of the members.
