The politics of spirituality

About this book

This book provides the first in-depth case study of RENEW - a pastoral programme of religious revitalization. The programme originated in the United States in 1976 and has since been widely adopted throughout the Roman Catholic world. Initiated from the top down in a hierarchically-structured church, it can be seen as an example of clerical attempts to stimulate and control lay spirituality in an organizationally controlled manner (as opposed to grass-roots movements, such as those associated with liberation theology). The authors look at the history of religious organizations in the Roman Catholic Church and the effects of modernity on religious culture and practice which prompted the diocese to adopt RENEW. Their findings show that the effects of RENEW were limited and short-lived, an inevitable consequence of its ambiguous and often contradictory aims. In analyzing these findings they suggest some ways in which the Church might reform itself - by decentralization and a reform of the papacy, for example - to meet the challenges of the modern age.