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Books
Book shows vigor of Asian Catholic vision
THE ASIAN SYNOD:
TEXTS AND COMMENTARIES
Compiled and edited by Peter Phan
Orbis
books, 352 pages, $60
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Reviewed by RICH
HEFFERN
Orbis Books has made another important contribution to a deeper
understanding of the emerging vision of the churches of Asia by publishing
The Asian Synod: Texts and Commentaries by Fr. Peter C. Phan, professor
of theology at The Catholic University of America and past president of the
Catholic Theological Society of America. Students of church history and
religious studies, among others, will find this book an invaluable companion to
Thomas C. Fox’s Pentecost in Asia.
Phan writes in the book’s preface: “Of all the five
special assemblies of the Synod of Bishops that Pope John Paul II convoked to
celebrate the coming of the third millennium of Christianity, the one for Asia
was, theologically speaking, the most exciting.” To help readers
appreciate the development, evolution and impact of a synod that will
potentially go down in history as one of the most important of the post-Vatican
II period, Phan selected key synod texts and has reprinted them along with
commentaries by Asian theologians. In doing so, Phan brings to life the
dynamics of a synod that for the first time on a world stage laid out the Asian
vision of church, what the Asians call “a new way of being
church.”
“The Asian Synod,” Phan writes, “marked the coming
of age of the Asian churches. If the last three decades of the 20th century
belonged to Latin America with its liberation theologies, Asia, with its
theologies of inculturation and interreligious dialogue, seems poised to
capture the attention of the church in the first decades of the [21st
century].”
This book will serve a wide range of readers, from Asian scholars
and church buffs to ordinary “in the pew” Catholics seeking vision
and hope in a time when both are needed. The book confirms Phan, once more, as
one of the most notable new voices on the theological scene.
Rich Heffern is NCR opinion editor. His e-mail is
rheffern@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, October 25,
2002
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