The 1974 Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops was followed by Pope Paul VI’s influential statement on evangelization, Evangelii Nuntiandi, which was followed in 1979 by the further papal Catechesi Tradendae by John Paul II. The collection of essays in Catholic Evangelization Today stems from a conference of the National Council for Catholic Evangelization in 1985 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Evangelii Nuntiandi.Section One of this book gives us some useful reflections and commentaries on the text of the papal statement.

In evangelical circles Evangelii Nuntiandi has sometimes been compared to its contemporary Lausanne Statement. Despite the Pope’s added epilogue with its eulogy to Mary as the star of evangelization, evangelicals have found considerable parallels with their own Lausanne Statement and have received Evangelii Nuntiandi with some warmth.

The volume before us in this review relates particularly to the Roman Catholic struggles concerning the validity and content of evangelization. While reaffirming the socio-political dimension of evangelization, it takes care to stress that evangelization ‘is to help another person pay attention to, celebrate and live in terms of the living God, revealed fully by Jesus and present in our human experiences’. The emphasis comes across clearly that the message of evangelization is the gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the Scriptures and the continuing tradition of the church. It is not just social action. Likewise these essays struggle with the post-Vatican II acceptance of other churches and religions as loci of revelation and grace. But the authors of these chapters clearly aim at an evangelization which will result in people being converted into the Catholic Church. This relates not only to other religions, but also to evangelical Protestants. This is particularly brought out in Bernard Quinn’s chapter on ‘A Catholic vision for the south’.

Readers of this volume will not only be grateful for its commentaries on Evangelii Nuntiandi and the insights it gives into Catholic internal struggles concerning the theology of evangelization, but will also gain useful stimuli towards the more effective practice of evangelism ourselves.