A Theology of the Parish: The Face of the Church in Challenging Times by William A. Clark

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Theology of the Parish: The Face of the Church in Challenging Times by William A. Clark Frank P. DeSiano, CSP A Theology of the Parish: The Face of the Church in Challenging Times. By William A. Clark, SJ. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2022. 200 pages. Paperback. $32.95. ISBN 978089155620. William Clark, S.J., has not so much produced "a theology" of the parish as a rather rich book exploring various theological perspectives about that highly-variable entity that we call "parish" in the Catholic Church. Because there are not many theological perspectives published on parish life, this book is particularly welcome. Rooted in Clark's pastoral experience in a variety of cultural (and continental) settings, and in his theological research on parish, this book offers readers a serious reflection containing a succession of distinct perspectives about the parish. Together, the chapters represent a fine review of theological thinking concerning the parish, one that will enrich pastoral theologians and one that potentially can enrich parish ministers and leaders. Notable in Clark's opening remarks is the rather skimpy formal definition of the parish that we have, from the Code of Canon Law (515). Given the actual role that parish plays in Catholicism, especially since the Council of Trent, this skimpiness should come as a surprise. Many Catholics have a "given" experience of parish from their local experiences of worship, but Catholics fail to realize just how flexible their "given" experience can be. Not only does each continent have its own experience, and assumptions, about parish; even within a diocese, experiences of parish will vary widely. Anyone who has worked in a diocesan office knows that speaking of parishes in rather raw urban neighborhoods will evoke language and images quite different from parishes in well-established suburban neighborhoods. Even suburban parishes that began in the United States in the 1950s will vary significantly from the often-oversized parishes that have recently emerged in newer suburbs. Rural parishes, of course, present an entirely other experience. If this is true within a single diocese, how can we appreciate the variations of parishes, say, in Latin America, in India, in older European central cities, or in sprawling African cities? Is there, then, [End Page 211] a theological approeach to parish that can do justice to this variation of experience? Clark's starting point for his reflection lies in that strange Greek word paroikos from which Latin derives its word paroecia. He sees the Greek concept as pointing to "fellow sojourners" who have formed a community which sees itself on a path of pilgrimage, "a community of alien sojourners" as he develops the concept (p. 5). This idea immediately begins to reveal the paradoxical tensions of parish: it is a "community" which sustains itself, but its references are to a fullness of hope that transcend time. The "alien-pilgrim" quality of parish may make it look isolated; but that same "alien" quality forces it to relate to realities that outstrip the particularity of its community toward surrounding communities of believers, the culture in which it lives, and the transcendent vision that underlies its faith. Clark's book then offers a chapter-by-chapter reflection on the implication of this tension between the particularity of parish life and the broader environments to which parish must relate. Discussion of parish throughout the book happens in the face of contemporary realities that parishes have to deal with which Clark returns to several times in his discussion. The two immediate factors are the implication of the sexual abuse scandal which has cut through parish and diocesan life such that it colors, one way or another, all contemporary Catholic experience; and, secondly, the global pandemic which radically altered the ways believers in parishes interact with each other, whether in terms of simply attending worship or in terms of participation in various parish ministries. These factors sharpen the particularity of parish life because they highlight a community of believers standing together as pilgrims in the face of shame and fear. On top of these two factors, Clark frequently alludes to the broader social patterns sweeping modern life such as secularization and suspicion of institutions, which complicate the context...