The church as the Western world knows it, Professor Metz argues, derives from a society and a culture which now belongs to the past. As an institution, it is all too often incapable of meeting the needs of our problem-torn age; worse still, in a variety of ways it makes the situation worse by glossing over these needs, and therefore standing in the way of constructive solutions, Christian often just 'believe in' love, discipleship, sharing the sufferings of others, and in fact go on living in the same apathetic way.