Introduction

This book is a thorough analysis and interpretation of chapters 5 and 6 of Lumen gentium. It begins with The Long Background, the story of the religious life from the beginning, focussing on the tension between the Religious and the Secular clergy that became the dominant source of tension in the debate over these two chapters at the Council.

There were irresolvable differences between the two groups at the Council and the documents had to leave them unsettled. The book sets out to solve the problems on the universal call to holiness, the theology of the religious life, and the charismatic structure of the Church, which refers to the role of the Bishops and the Secular Clergy in the pursuit of holiness in the Church.

The answers came as complete surprise to the author and propose novel approaches to all three issues.