In the past year and a half, Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center has published five books—the beginnings of a series—drawn from the conferences and symposia the center has held on campus. Assembled from papers delivered primarily by academics, the publications “are not abstract scholarly works for a technical audience,” says Tim Muldoon, the center’s director, but “are written to inform an ordinary community of Catholic faithful.” Topics range from Church managerial issues to sexuality, and the series is overseen by James F. Keenan, SJ, professor of theology at Boston College, and Patricia DeLeeuw, the University’s vice provost for faculties.

Plans are under way to expand the scope of the series in the next two years, reaching beyond campus events to publish research (including a study of the national lay organization Voice of the Faithful, by Catholic University sociologists William D’Antonio and Rev. Anthony Pogorelc) and collections of essays by prominent Catholics (e.g., a forthcoming volume on women and the Church).

The series to date:

• Church Ethics and Organizational Context (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), Jean M. Bartunek, RSCJ, Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM, and James F. Keenan, SJ, editors. Topics include Catholic leadership in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal, proposals for an ecclesial professional code of ethics, and the theological and canonical hurdles that stand in the way.

• Handing on the Faith: The Church’s Mission and Challenge (Crossroad, 2006), Fr. Robert P. Imbelli, editor. Contributors discuss the state of religious education and the best means for conveying the faith to future generations, including catechesis and community-based faith formation.

• Priests for the 21st Century (Crossroad, 2006), Donald Dietrich, editor. Beginning with “Priesthood: Forty Years After Vatican II,” papers such as “Addressing the Priest ‘Shortage’” and “Is the ‘Burnout’ Real?” present the facts and challenges of a dwindling priesthood.

• Inculturation and the Church in North America (Crossroad, 2006), T. Frank Kennedy, SJ, editor. Essays on topics ranging from Catholics and politics to the impact of women theologians to U.S. Hispanic Marian devotion examine Catholic identity and the perceptions of non-Catholics.

• Sexuality and the U.S. Catholic Church (Crossroad, 2006), Lisa Sowle Cahill, T. Frank Kennedy, SJ, and John Garvey, editors. Perspectives on homosexuality, marriage, celibacy, and childbearing are framed by essays on the Church sex abuse scandal.

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