How does the church engage creatively with the modern world? For Richard Lennan, who did his doctorate in Austria on Karl Rahner, looking to the future to see how we should be in the present has been the project of his theological life for nearly four decades. This is the 'Gaudium et spes' approach to the world: neither naïve nor fearful about the future, but always moving ourselves towards God rather than reducing God to our place and time.

Now professor at Boston College teaching the next generation of theologians, he wants church leaders to better support these lay women and men in bridging the gulf between theology and the church. He thinks Francis should hold a synod on the role of theology, which he sees as the antidote to the growing polarisation in the church and society.

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