Walter Kasper is already well-known and loved throughout the English-speaking world. He has held high office in the Vatican but until his recent retirement has felt constrained from publishing what he really thinks and his vision of the Church for the future. Kasper brings to conclusion a project that has been pursued for years, as it joins together his greatest monographs on the subject of God's teaching and Christology. The book covers three main topics: Nature, Reality and the Mission of the Church. The introductory section is autobiographical and the reader can see Kasper's personal and theological way in to and with the Church. He develops the actual ecclesiological exegesis - for Kasper the representation of the Being of the Church is not about empirical description, but rather a testimony of being. He emphasizes that nobody is able to apply the stereotypical and idealistic image of the heavens to the critical acknowledgement of the church's present. The program of the Church is ultimately not self-directed but rather remains oriented towards the finalization of the arrival of the kingdom of God and the spiritual healing of the human race.
