The Signs of the Times and the Religious Life

the long version

Father Hinnebusch, the author of several excellent theological and spiritual works, pleads in his latest book for a re-examination of religious life in the light of those ""signs of the times"" to which John XXIII and Vitican II frequently appealed as the guidelines for the reform of the Church. Those signs, particularly, are the concepts of love and service on which so much emphasis is placed today both in the Church and in the world, and Hinnebusch points out that the emergence of those two factors makes it possible to reinterpret the traditional religious vows in such a way as to assure the personal fulfillment of the individual priest or nun as well as the accomplishment of their ""mission""--whether the latter be entirely contemplative in nature or a combination of the contemplative and active lives. Father Hinnebusch, as always, is to the point, concise, and straightforward. This book will rank as one of the best on the subject of the role of the religious in the twentieth century.