At the end of the Epilogue to his book, the author writes: "It has been my privilege to teach many men and women.... Not a single one had read ES [Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam] prior to beginning graduate studies in pastoral theology..."(p. 343).  This statement says much about this book.  First, we are reading an account of the author's use of the encyclical in courses that he has been teaching.  Second, he is using a text that has not been much read in some time, having been written in 1964, and not being a document of the Second Vatican Council.

On the other hand, as soon as I saw that this book had been published, this reader was intrigued because I remember reading the encyclical when it was first promulgated.  It was published (or summarized) surprisingly in the New York Times, and I was getting ready to go to Rome as a seminarian to study at the North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University.  I was excited to read the encyclical that August of 1964 as a way to prepare for my new adventure in the study of theology.

The author notes that he discovered the encyclical and its significance because it became a blueprint for the interpretation of Vatican Council II by the two Popes who participated in the Council and wanted the Church to keep the Council's teaching alive and influential, namely, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  The author comments at length on the references of the two Popes to the encyclical and on their use of its program in their writings, both before and after they were elected to the papacy. Douglas Bushman studies at length the three paths that Pope Paul VI presents and examines in his encyclical as the way for the Church to live out its life at the present time.

The first path is that of Awareness, by which the Pope means the Church's awareness of divine revelation mediated through the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.  Words are important for this teaching, of course, but so too is love of divine revelation.  Thus, "Vatican II is the continuation of a process of deepening self-understanding that is characteristic of the Church's life" (p. 54).

The second path is Renewal.  Pope Paul recalls the important word used by Pope John XXIII when he decided to convoke a Second Vatican Council, aggiornamento.  Here are the telling words of the encyclical: "The word aggiornamento, rendered famous by our predecessor of happy memory, John XXIII, should always be kept in mind as our program of action.  We have confirmed it as the guiding criterion of the Ecumenical Council" (paragraph 50).  Renewal is another word to use besides aggiornamento, along with reform and metanoia.

The third path is Dialogue, which is to say "mission, ministry, apostolate, and service" (p. 91).  "The movement here is from the experience of God's love ad intra, within the Church, to the projection, the outpouring, the effusion of that same love ad extra, toward the world" (p. 102).

Bushman's book is a demanding read, not because of any difficulty in understanding its content, but because of the detail of the text itself and because of the book's extensive footnotes.  My sense is that it is a book to be read by professors who have their students read the encyclical itself.  Then the professors can offer many of Bushman's details to help their students take to heart and put into practice the teaching of Paul VI's text and Vatican II's documents as they continue to be relevant for the life of the Church today.