The Roman Catholic Church is not known for its constructive engagement with voices that disagree, challenge, contest—or, in short, dissent. As volume contributor Annemarie Mayer notes, Christianity tends to favor peace and unity and has developed little expertise in managing conflicts other than “personalizing” them into a matter of obedience. Yet making people either obey or go away evades rather than resolves conflicts. As a result, “Inner unity may have been preserved or restored, but the tension has migrated to the outside, and the substance of the conflict remains” (24).
This volume takes another approach. At its core, it “seeks to make conflict and disagreement the point of departure for theological reflection and construction” while “resisting the temptation to subject the contestative heterogeneity within ecclesial traditions to notions of pre-existing stability and unity” (4–5). Engaging fields as diverse as church history, ecumenism, feminism, sociology, and politics, it challenges dominance and established norms. The reflections are divided into six parts, each consisting of two chapters. The thirteen chapters deal with fundamental theological questions (parts 1 and 4) and four “conflict fields”: liturgy (part 2), canon law (part 3), gender and sexuality (part 4), and race (part 5). The authors come from various continents, belong to various denominations, and are often higly regarded.
A first highlight of the book for me is the contribution of Cláudio Carvalhaes of Union Theological Seminary, a Protestant theologian working in New York and originally from Brazil. He reminds the reader that dissent has marked Christian history from its very inception, through the Reformation and, more recently, liberation theology. “Christian ecclesiology, theology, spirituality, rituals, and so on have fundamentally been a history of contestation turned into normalcy” (70). Because establishing norms and institutionalizing are unavoidable, the church needs to actively seek “an outside of [its] self-encompassing system” (73). Carvalhaes develops two daring proposals for, first, learning from and being enriched by other religions and, second, being in touch with the earth.
Yet this requires a more positive approach to diversity and dissent. Unfortunately, Bernhard Sven Anuth’s “inventory” confirms that from the perspective of Roman Catholic canon law very little dissent is permitted. “The Catholic Church offers only an extremely small space for conflict and dissent” (97). The author steers consistently clear of critically reflecting on the state of affairs and creatively exploring how dissent could be dealt with more constructively, which makes this reviewer wonder how this chapter fits in with the book’s overall project.
Judith Hahn’s reflection on canon law, however, is another highlight. Engaging sociological research, she suggests that a disconnection between an ideal and the norms offered as means to reach it leads to various forms of “deviant responses to social expectations” (105). She suggests that the widespread non-reception of ecclesial norms should be dealt with not as a matter of obedience but of the Spirit’s invitation to reform.
Other chapters broaden the scope by discussing, among other topics, ecumenism (Mayer); “radical theology,” meaning a theology that deconstructs absolute claims and unity, which by implication dissolves dissent (John Caputo); binary oppositions in the field of liturgy such as sacred versus profane and active versus contemplative (Joris Geldhof); the importance of partnership and solidarity for women in South African churches in the face of the challenge of exclusion (Nadine Bowers Du Toit); and the 2015 so-called Muslim ban in the United States and its underlying racialization (Mara Brecht).
The book is relevant in the context of the synodal reimagination of the church initiated by Pope Francis and continued under Pope Leo, which implies that the Catholic Church welcomes a diversity of views. The fact that synodality is barely discussed helpfully suggests that constructively dealing with conflict and contestation is a basic, general issue with a relevance for many other aspects of Christian theology and life. No doubt further reflection is needed among others about the practical, psychological, and spiritual skills required for dealing with diversity and contestation. Further reflection is also needed about how to change the ecclesial leadership culture in such a way that this book’s constructive ideal will be put into practice.
