[In the following review, Curran states that although the material in Gustafson's The Church as Moral Decision Maker is a bit dated, the church needs "the type of careful, reflective, analytic moral discourse which Gustafson handles so well."]

This slim volume [The Church as Moral Decision Maker] gathers together eight previously published essays by James M. Gustafson which are now grouped together around the two general themes of the church in society and moral perspectives on the church.

The subject matter of the essays is somewhat dated; for example, the first essay on Christian attitudes towards a technological society originally appeared over ten years ago. Since then there has been much theological discussion about technology and secularity. Likewise the essays on the church do not propose any radical new types of church community but rather assume that churches will continue to exist in the future much the same as they were a few years ago. One would never come away from reading this book with the impression that the church is experiencing any real crisis today.

This book does not attempt to suggest radical reforms in the church. No one would ever include these essays in any "futuristic symposium" on the church in the next century or even the church in the '70s. There are no sweeping criticisms of the present and no prophetic blueprints for the future, but this book does make a significant contribution to the discussion, if only to remind us of the continuing need for careful analysis in our discourse about the church and society.

In these essays Gustafson carefully pursues his critical analysis of the church as a voluntary association and of the society in which we live. The scholarly, analytical and unsensational approach so well illustrated in Gustafson's methodology must always be present in our theologizing about the church and society. Although such an approach appears to be dull and unexciting in comparison with other approaches to the same subject, often its value is more lasting.

An opening introduction by Charles M. Swezey, who assembled the collection of essays, sketches the later development of Gustafson's moral methodology and tries to relate these earlier essays to this methodology. Gustafson views the technological society in all its ambiguities which excludes canonizing technology as totally good or rejecting it as the product of evil. Perhaps Gustafson sees the ambiguity of technology too much in terms of a division between the inner and the outer in man so that technology is seen as a product of rationality and thus is somewhat opposed to the human.

A careful analysis of Christian social action examines the forms of such action under three different perspectives—as governed by the social structure itself, by personal faith, and by God's objective action. The essay on "Authority in a Pluralistic Society" starts from a sociological analysis of the pluralistic society to determine the role and function of authority. Perhaps the contemporary experience would move the author to change his emphasis on the civil law as providing "the clearest statement of the social and cultural consensus present in a pluralistic society…."

The essays in Part Two emphasize the reality of the church as a voluntary association which as one of its purposes must become a community of moral discourse and then properly use its institutional power. Gustafson and others have seen the voluntary association as the model of the Protestant church in this country, but contemporary Roman Catholic ecclesiology understands the church in a very similar way. In the future, for example, the magisterial function in the Roman Catholic church should be exercised more in accord with the model of a community of moral discourse as sketched by Gustafson.

In these essays Gustafson alludes to two important moral themes which still interest him today—the model of responsibility and the concern of moral education and development. Gustafson examines the moral purposes and functions of the church and the best way to implement these. He often succinctly reviews past theological approaches and then carefully indicates guidelines and directions which the church should follow without presenting any detailed and concrete plan. As a good academician he tries to move the question forward step by step.

In sum, the impact of these essays suffers from the changes which have occurred in the church and society in the last few years. Gustafson stresses the need for the church to be a community of moral discourse, but moral discourse in the church needs a plurality of forms including a more prophetic dimension than is apparent in this volume. The church, however, needs today and always will need and profit from the type of careful, reflective, analytic moral discourse which Gustafson handles so well.