Abstract
Rafael Luciani’s book Synodality provides scholars and practitioners with a brief, informative introduction to some of the major components of a theology of synodality in the life of the church. L., a major contributor to Francis’s ongoing synod on synodality, here outlines some of the major ideas informing the current Vatican attempts to foster a more synodal church through new styles and habits of being church together in dialogue, reciprocity, and co-responsibility.
Attending to the citations of a text is a tricky and occasionally misleading business, but in this instance it illuminates the fact that L.’s project is less an independent theology of synodality than an attempt to bring together recent authoritative texts and teachings that form the foundations for a practice of synodality. First among these sources are the documents of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Lumen Gentium. L. outlines the contributions and the limitations of the conciliar documents to synodal ecclesiality. He relates how conciliar teachings on the fundamental baptismal dignity and priesthood of all believers, on the sensus fidelium as the possession of the church as a whole, and on the contextuality of the local church all provide crucial theological foundations for synodality. And yet, he correctly judges that the conciliar focus upon episcopal collegiality in relation to papal primacy has generally limited postconciliar ecclesial reform to only one constituent aspect of dialogue and co-responsibility in a synodal church.
Two other major sources are the writings and speeches of Francis, and the 2018 document of the International Theological Commission entitled “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church.” The latter is a key source for understanding current Vatican thinking on the theology of synods and synodality, and L. rightly makes extensive use of it throughout the book, especially its distinction of the roles of the “one,” “some,” and “all” in the shared work of synodal discernment. Also prominent in L.’s text are the extensive citations of Francis’s own thought on synodality drawn from Evangelii Gaudium and from speeches by the pope in recent years. These sections summarize the thinking of the pope and his advisors about the nature of synodality and the steps needed to implement their vision in the church today. As such, it is not only a valuable resource for those looking to understand and promote synodality, but also to those, now and in the future, who will want to explore Francis’s and L.’s ideas of synodality in this exciting historical moment.
A fourth and final source upon which L. draws is the experience of the Latin American Catholic Church in practical forms of synodal conversion. One of the most important and valuable contributions the book makes, particularly through this translation into English, is outlining the experiences of Latin American Catholic institutions as a case study and model of synodal practice. L. especially focuses upon the conference of the Latin American Bishops Council (CELAM) at Medellín in 1968. Many will be familiar with some of the final documents of the Medellín conference and its reception of the Second Vatican Council, with a focus upon the need for “authentic liberation” in their churches. In Synodality, though, L. helpfully outlines how the process of mutual listening and shared discernment that led up to and culminated in the 1968 meeting provides a primary example of the spirit and structures of synodality now being promoted in the global church. In this way, L.’s work converges with similar projects that lift up other synodal processes that precede the current popularity and even vocabulary of synodality, such as the National Encuentros on Hispanic Ministry in the United States and experiments in shared co-responsibility by women’s religious communities in the postconciliar period, among others.
The book is not without its limitations, stylistic and substantive. The text overly relies at times upon italicization to make its key points. More substantively, the book’s excellent summary of Francis’s current vision of synodality as essential to the continuing reception of the Second Vatican Council is emphasized to the detriment of locating synodality within wider historical and theological horizons. At times, the lack of attention to the long history of synodality in the life of the church and in the contemporary experience of other Christian churches makes it seem as though synodality began de novo during the reception of the Second Vatican Council or in the initiatives of the current pontificate, rather than being arguably the most traditional form of ecclesial discernment and decision-making. Despite these limitations, however, L. has provided readers with an excellent introduction to the renewal of the church as a synodal community, and an important contribution to the continuing theoretical understanding and practical implementation of what Francis has famously named “the path that God expects of the Church of the third millennium.”