Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine.

Edited by Russell Shaw Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., $39.95, 751 pp.

This volume is offered as a complement to the Catechism of the Catholic Church by expanding on some points of doctrine in the latter, integrating scattered material, and providing historical background and pastoral insights. The dust jacket says that it was "reviewed by the Ad Hoc Committee on the Catechism and found to be consistent and in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Having myself edited a theological dictionary, I am aware of the difficulties of such an enterprise, which begin with the selection of topics, decisions about relative length and prominence and the choice of authors, and end with having to deal with the varying quality of articles submitted, differences in perspective and position, etc. The editor and publisher may be congratulated for having produced a generally well-integrated, moderately priced, and handsomely printed volume, mercifully free of typographical errors.

Forty authors, most of them Americans and theologians, contributed articles on topics from "Abortion" to "Worship." The articles vary greatly in length and technical quality, the longer ones being signed, and are provided with minimal bibliographies and, usually, with references to the appropriate passages in the Catechism. Short of reproducing the index of the Catechism, the editor had to make choices. Where the reason for these choices is evident they usually seem related, first, to subjects of some concern and even controversy in the United States and/or, second, to prominent themes in the magisterium of Pope John Paul II, whose writings are so abundantly cited that the volume might also be read as a companion to his teachings.

While titled an encyclopedia of doctrine, this volume contains articles also on some Catholic practices, devotions, and institutions; the criterion for the choice of these topics and of others is not always evident. Prominence in the Catechism obviously plays some role. Contemporary relevance is evident in articles on Animals and the Environment; on Abortion, Assisted Suicide, Contraception, Genetic Experimentation, Prenatal Diagnosis, Reproductive Technologies, and Euthanasia; on Consequentialism, Proportionalism, and Teleological Ethics; on the Fatherhood of God, Women, Ecclesial and Social Roles of, and Women, Ordination of; it is less clearly the explanation of the articles on Diabolical Possession, Divination, Freemasonry, Magic, New Age, and Theosophy, which also are hardly major concerns in the Catechism. World religions receive attention: Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism. Anglicanism, and Orthodoxy are separately treated, but a single article on Protestantism suffices for other Christian groups; the short entry on Ecumenism does not do justice either to the present pope or to Vatican II. Various "isms" are treated: Agnosticism, Atheism, Gnosticism, Jansenism, Manichaeism, Modernism, Quietism, Relativism, Subjectivism, but one would have to dig for other errors or heresies. Among philosophies one finds Neoplatonism, Phenomenology, and Process Theology, but not Aristotelianism and Platonism, never mind Hegelianism, Kantianism, and Marxism. Of the fathers and doctors of the church there are articles on only Augustine and Thomas, the latter, unfortunately, treated almost entirely as a philosopher. A surprising omission is any special treatment of psychology or of religious experience, the latter being a favored interest of the present pope.

The major theological topics are, of course, covered, at varying depths and with varying success. By far the best group of articles are those devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which stand out for their treatment of the Bible and the history of doctrines and devotions and for the balance of their presentation. They are a model that one wishes had been followed by other articles on major themes, which either entirely omit or too rapidly pass over historical developments and often simply ignore key questions about the use of the Bible and challenges posed by modern science, history, and philosophy. The articles devoted to the liturgy are also generally well done.

The treatment of the Christian God is left in unintegrated form in two articles, one largely philosophical ("God") and the other theological ("Trinity"). The many articles on Jesus Christ are examples of what we used to call dogmatic theology, with few bows to history, ancient or modern; for example, the article "Jesus Christ, Life of" discusses the mysteries of his life, with scant reference to his time, place, culture, or teachings or to the latest wave of interest in the historical Jesus and the theological questions it raises. While three articles covering nine columns are devoted to Faith, less than one column each was thought to suffice for Hope and Charity. The articles on Church and State and on Religious Freedom nearly ignore the church's official practice and teaching from the Middle Ages to the Second Vatican Council.

The church is treated in many scattered articles, which often fall short of Vatican II and of the Catechism on several issues. For example, the idea of the one church as the communion of the many churches hardly appears; the regional dimensions of episcopacy and collegiality are underplayed; the relation between the Catholic church and other Christian churches is not addressed (the council's famous statement that the church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic church is ignored); the article on membership in the church ignores the most important element in the council's description of full incorporation. The vindication of hierarchy and authority is a regular theme, with dissent the subject of an often oversimplified treatment in nineteen different places.

Many cross-references and a lengthy index will often help the reader supply for any want of completeness or accuracy in individual articles, although the admittedly unconventional character of the index does not make it very user-friendly. When looking for help on topics such as Love, Mass, Mortal Sin, Natural Law, Teresa of Avila, and Thomas Aquinas, it is frustrating to find the word "passim."

All in all, one might say that this volume reads Vatican II and, indeed, the whole doctrinal tradition in the light of the Catechism, the Catechism in the light of the teachings of John Paul II, and John Paul II in the light of certain perceptions of what is most needed in the United States today to oppose the "confusion, controversy, and dissent" which the editor thinks the Catechism was chiefly designed to address. If this is what you are looking for in an encyclopedia, this is, as the dust jacket promises, "a resource you can trust." You will not often find here much indication that other ways of ordering or stating Catholic doctrine, or even for reading and interpreting the tradition, Vatican II, the Catechism, and the magisterium of the present pope, and the contemporary situation, are possible - and trustworthy.

The Reverend Joseph A. Komonchak holds the John and Gertrude Hubbard Chair in Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America.