Global Catholicism

Massimo Faggioli is professor of historical theology at Villanova University. Among his most recent publications, The Liminal Papacy of Pope Francis. Moving Toward Global Catholicity (2020) and, co-edited with Catherine Clifford, The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II (2023).Bryan Froehle is professor of sociology and religious studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he also directs the Ph.D. in practical theology. Twenty years ago he co-authored Global Catholicism (2003), a precursor to this book.

• AcknowledgementsList of Graphs and Tables1 Introducing a Field of Study1 An Emerging Future2 An Emerging Discipline3 The Chapters That Follow2 Global Catholic Institutional Capacity1 Continental Shifts2 A Global Minority3 Institutional Life3 Global Catholicism Reimagined1 The Remapping of Global Catholicism1.1 Euro-Atlantic1.2 Eastern Europe1.3 Middle East1.4 Latin America1.5 Africa1.6 Asia1.7 Overall2 The Retelling of Global Catholic History2.1 The Ironies of Periodization(s)2.2 The Global South as Subject2.3 The Pivot in Europe4 Global Catholic Governance1 Transitions and Tensions2 From a Roman to a Global Curia and Papacy3 From “Universal” to “Global”3.1 Culture Wars3.2 Power Vacuum, Neo-traditionalism, and Neo-integralism3.3 Abuse in the Church3.4 Communication3.5 Clericalism and Hierarchicalism3.6 Populism and Crises of Liberal Democracy3.7 Power and Liminality3.8 Globality and Innovation, Theological and Institutional4 Synodality as a Response to Centralization and Fragmentation5 A New Post-Conciliar Reckoning: What the Council Did and Failed to Do5.1 The Advent of the Eucharistic People6 Et Et – “Both And” in Global Catholic Governance5 Global Catholicism Retheologized1 Postcolonial Ecclesiology1.1 Ad Intra1.2 Ad Extra2 Lived Ecclesiology2.1 Euro-Atlantic Lived Theologies2.2 Latin America and the Caribbean2.3 Sub-Saharan Africa2.4 Southeast Asia2.5 South Asia2.6 Ecclesial Alliances and World Polycentricity2.7 Catholic Political Homelessness in Its Former Heartland3 Synodality and Ecclesiogenesis4 Theological Starting Points6 Method and Methodology1 Method in the Study of Global Catholicism1.1 Fundamental Ecclesiology1.2 Ongoing Praxis2 Global Catholic Methodology7 The Coming of the Cosmopolitan Church1 Global Catholic Research Agenda2 Transformations and TransitionsAppendix 1: Definitions of Selected TermsAppendix 2: Sources for Catholic StatisticsAppendix 3: Data by Country or TerritoryBibliographyIndex

"This is an important book, as much for its aspiration as its achievement, for it advances a cause. Its two authors, both widely published and influential, here argue for the value of global Catholicism as an academic field with a distinct methodology, one shaped by the current realities of the Catholic Church as placed in historical perspective. In this, the inaugural and programmatic volume in the Brill series “Studies in Global Catholicism,” of which they are editors-in-chief, Faggioli, a theologian, and Froehle, a sociologist, both US-based at the time of publication (Faggioli has recently taken up a position at Trinity College Dublin), make strong assertions about the need for such a field, all the while unveiling numerous insights. Whether they succeed in establishing the new field, only time will tell. Meanwhile there is much to celebrate in this volume... This is an ambitious book, and its goals are clearly laid out and well-defended. In the effort to emphasise the need for a new field, other contenders are sometimes caricatured—e.g., “world Christianity,” for example, which might be better seen as a larger container in which Global Catholicism exists than a competitor—yet there are truths in caricatures, too, so that the argument here has its merits. Jargon—or, at least, terms worthy of further defining—operates extensively here as well (e.g., “intradisciplinarity,” abductive, geoecclesiology), and at times the pace of arguments can exceed their precision. Yet the overall effect is compelling enough in supporting the need for a new field. Meanwhile, this book can serve many other purposes, too, as it outlines very thoughtful and well-informed insights for grasping the current Catholic predicament, generating a sober hope about its possible future, and thoughtfully suggesting how to study it." - Paul V. Kollman in: Irish Theological Quarterly 90.4 (2025)