This is one of the outstanding books on theology of the twentieth century by Professor Gillis of Georgetown University. It is not merely a description but a comparison and analysis of issues, such as Mission versus Maintenance which is an in-depth study of paradoxes between the mission of the church and the maintenance of the bureaucracy and structure. Nobody is expected to accept both sides or all sides of issues, but the reader of any religion or even no religion will come away with an understanding of unique features of Roman Catholicism such as the protection of the connection between the human and the Divine which the institution of Priests and Sisters provides. Buddhism and Hinduism have a different way of protecting this connection, and Judaism and Islam and the Protestant Faith have their own ways. Perhaps there is hope in this Amerian melting pot, that by comparing good experiences the good lives on and the evil is buried. This is why I only review good books.

Roman Catholicism in America is an essential text for any thorough study of Roman Catholicism: it examines the religion within the context of American culture, with scholar Gillis examining the major religious concepts, individuals, and principles of Roman Catholics. An interdisciplinary approach allows for the consideration of various Catholic experiences and influences.

Chester Gillis delights readers with his historical thoroughness and timeless ancedotes on Catholicism in America. As a former student of his at Georgetown, I am not suprised. Thank you, Professor Gillis.

In the contemporary religious situation, it is no longer possible for Christianity to regard itself in the insular manner which has characterized so much of its historical relationships with other traditions. Rather, with the technology's breakdown of cultural and geographical boundaries, Christians cannot consider themselves exclusively within their own community, but must also position themselves responsibly with respect to the world's other major religious traditions and adopt a philosophical stance toward these other faiths. These stances have taken three principal forms: exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. Exclusivism and pluralism are problematic for a Christian approach to the contemporary situation because they do not address the fact that all of the major faith traditions make faith claims and have notions of eschatological fulfillment which, in the grounds of public verifiability and coherence in discourse, are equally valid. Thus, to publicly adopt a philosophical stance which privileges the faith claims of Christianity over those of other religions is ot raise internal, confessional faith convictions ot the level of absolute public truth. Gillis argues convincingly in his book that with pluralism, the paradigm that is most sensitive to the fact of diverse religious claims worldwide, the truth claims of any one faith are relativized in the light of the parity between the faiths' competing claims. The conflict in terms of matters of religion, Gillis argues, is that there are no grounds upon which one can philosophically base religious claims in an absolute manner. Absolute claims that use philosophical language, such as "it is the case that...," appeal to an objective ontological truth which simply cannot be verified in matters of religious faith. In issues of God or whatever name one gives to the Absolute, such objective claims simply cannot coherently be made and supported publicly in inter-faith discourse.

Exclusivism, as Gillis defines it, arrogantly elevates Christianity's claims avove those of other faiths and denies salvation to anyone who does not share these claims. It implies an objective quality to its claims by maintaining that Christianity is the only path to salvation. Inclusivism attempts to pull other faiths in under the "umbrella" of Christian salvation. It asserts that other faiths lead one to salvation in Christ by virtue of the fact that through these traditions, one implicitly seeks to affirm Christian grace and Christian salvation through Jesus Christ. Thus, inclusivism also does not allow for other salvations as the other traditions might choose to define them, but rather re-defines their salvation on their Christian terms. Gillis' book is outstanding in that in it, he considers these issues of inter-faith relations in a global community with a sensitivity not found in the exclusivist and inclusivist positions. Rather, he opts for pluralism, through which he states that in the contemporary, globally-interrelated state of religious affairs, it is no longer logical for any one faith to maintain that it can make claims upon absolute ultimate reality. Gillis' more circumspect position allows the various world faiths to exist on an equal ground, without the triumphalism which can at times infect religions' perspectives on other faiths. Pluralism affirms the equality of the major faith traditions' truth claims, and the equal possibility each holds for its particular vision of salvation or liberation. Pluralism, as Gillis defines and discusses it, remains the most tenable perspective from which to regard the relationship of "salvific parity" between faiths, as with the expansion of our knowledge of the diverse and complex religious universe, one no longer needs to believe that Christ is exclusively the sole way to any form of salvation or liberation.