A leading journalist assesses the state of the Catholic church today and the shape of the future to come.

In his long career as a religion writer and editor Tom Robert has been engaged on a particular search to understand the emerging Catholic communitya search bracketed on one end by Vatican II and ton he other by the yet unknown. In this work he presents the fruit of his observations: a picture of a church that is still grappling with the meaning of the Second Vatican Council; responding to dramatic demographic shifts affecting both the church and wider culture; absorbing the implications of the new cosmology with its impact on traditional belief systems; accounting for the emerging leadership of women in the church and the wider culture, and its impact on an evolving concept of God; and reeling over the sex abuse scandal, and what it has revealed about the growing inadequacy of the hierarchical culture. With all the signs of strain and stress, however, Roberts gives equal attention to signs of renewal, showing how faith, hope, and love which have guided the church in the past will continue to shape the community's search for itself in the future.