New Religious Movements in the Catholic Church Book

This book offers an understanding of the need and task of evangelisation in the Catholic Church today from the perspective of the Ecclesial Movements. These new religious movements and communities are represented across the world in many different countries. They include the founders of movements, active members and those who have been responsible for articulating the specific insights of the movement. Some are simply the story of the movement thus far, and like all good stories they invite us to reflect and draw out key ideas. Some offer a reflection on the theological foundations of the movements; and some offer us a cultural and theological reflection on the Church and Christian Life today through the particular perspective of the spirituality of that movement. As Charles Whitehead reminds us, we are not dealing with a very precise term when we talk of "Ecclesial Movements", and he offers us some common themes, but warns us not to try and fit all of them into similar structures. The divergences are as many as the convergences. That great range of types of structure is well represented here. At the same time as this diversity there are common themes that bring these movements together. Either explicitly or implicitly they find a point of reference in the Second Vatican Council with its universal call to holiness and to the active apostolate.