Mary, Star of Evangelization: Tilling the Soil and Sowing the Seed
By Jacob Phillips
Paulist Press, 192pp, £24.99/$24.95
Pity the Catholic evangeliser. That is perhaps to press the point too hard, but early on in Mary, Star of Evangelization, Jacob Phillips puts his finger on an uncomfortable truth. Recalling the words of Paul VI, he reminds us that the Church has a duty to preserve in its “untouchable purity” a heritage of faith, while at the same time presenting it to “the people of our time” in a way that is “as understandable and persuasive as possible”. Catholic evangelisation, one might conclude, takes place on a tightrope where a loss of balance leads to failure, whichever side one falls.
