The Theology of the Church,9780898708882

The Theology of the Church

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ISBN13: 9780898708882
ISBN10: 0898708885
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 2004-05-30
Publisher(s): Ignatius Press
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Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition xxvii
Foreword xxxi
Foreword to the 1987 Edition xxxiii
Preface xxxv
Initial Presentation of the Church
1(25)
The Nature of the Church
1(13)
The manner of regarding the Church
1(2)
Three ways of regarding Jesus
Three ways of regarding the Church
The different names of the Church
3(5)
The people of God
The Church
The Body of Christ
The Bride of Christ
The Kingdom of God
The City of God
Primary definitions of the Church
The Church mysterious and visible
8(6)
The invisible soul of the Church forms her body
The Church claims the whole of man, but precisely insofar as he is ordered to eternal life
It is by visible hierarchical powers that Christ orders the hidden mysteries of his grace and his truth to be dispensed to men
The Church is similar to Christ
Incarnation spirituality
The Church is primarily spiritual, secondarily visible
The Church of the Word Made Flesh
The Different States of the Church in the Course of Time
14(12)
The age of the Father, or the regime prior to the Church
14(2)
The world of creation
The age of the Father
That which survives from the world of creation
The age of Christ awaited, or the first regime of the Church
16(4)
The world of redemption
The law of nature and the law of Moses
The double mediation of the sacraments and prophecy
``Abraham is better than I, but my state is better than his''
Mediation is a path, not an obstacle
Two peoples become one
The age of Christ present, or the formation of the Head of the Church
20(3)
Preparation for the Incarnation
The visible mission of the Son is realized in Christ the Head of the Church
The time of the presence of Christ
Fully Christic grace
The full outpouring of grace
The age of the Holy Spirit, or the current regime of the Church
23(3)
The age of the Holy Spirit will complete, not abolish, the age of the Son
Why did Christ have to leave us?
The age of the Holy Spirit is the age of the Eucharist and the hierarchy
Christ, the Head of the Church
26(39)
The Church, the First-Born of the World Gathered Together in Christ
26(13)
God becomes man that man might share in the divine nature
26(3)
The unique mystery of the redemptive Incarnation
The Incarnation begins our reconciliation
The whole of humanity is affected through the individual nature of Christ
The whole of creation is raised up
The only Son became the first-born of many brethren
Christ espouses humanity
29(3)
All of humanity is invited to the marriage banquet
Foundations in Sacred Scripture
Texts of St. Augustine
Christ is incorporated into humanity
32(3)
The vine and the branches
The Head and the Body
The Mystical Body
One sole person
The recapitulation of the world in Christ
35(4)
What is the recapitulation?
The cosmic character of the Church and the law of distinction of the spiritual and the temporal
The confrontation between the two cities
The Church reclaims the whole man and all men, but in view of eternal ends
The Church is the world being reconciled to God
The Church Redeemed by the Passion of Christ
39(12)
The redemption of Christ, the New Adam
39(5)
Ascending and descending mediations of Christ
The solidarity in Adam and the solidarity in Christ
Sin: the evil of man and an offense against God
The infinity of the offense and the infinity of the compensation
More than deliverance, Christ brings redemption
The merit of Christ and his Church
44(2)
The paradox of redemption: God is bound in justice to show mercy
The merit of Christ is diffused in his members
Our merits are God's gifts
The Church merits in Christ an increase of love and the conversion of the world
The satisfaction of Christ and the Church
46(3)
The sorrowful satisfaction of Christ
Its superabundance
How Christ's satisfaction is communicated to his members
The appropriation of Christ's redemption by the Church
49(2)
The redemption of Christ is imputed, in principle, to all men
The valid foundation and the error of the Lutheran doctrine of appropriation
The Catholic doctrine of appropriation
The Church Is Formed by the Grace of Christ
51(14)
The capital grace of Christ
51(2)
Capital grace
The three privileges of Christ's capital grace
God uses Christ as an instrument in order to pour forth his treasures of capital grace
The priesthood of Christ and the Church
53(2)
The priesthood of Christ
The sacrifice of Christ
The participation of the faithful in the worship inaugurated by Christ
The kingship of Christ and the Church
55(3)
Jesus, King and Prophet
The necessity of oral preaching
This contact will not be interrupted
Hierarchical and private prophecy
Royal and prophetic role of the Church
The sanctity of Christ and the Church
58(7)
Sanctity, the supreme privilege of Christ
Sanctity, the supreme treasure of the Church
Sanctity comes to us through Christ
What is grace?
The perfections that grace assumes in Christ
The action of Christ from a distance and his action by contact
Grace that is fully Christ-conforming
The grace of the redemption is better than the grace of innocence
The profound hold but apparent precariousness of the grace of redemption
The Holy Spirit in the Church
65(25)
Christ is the visible center of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the invisible center, heart and soul of the Church
The Missions of the Divine Persons, the Supreme Source of the Church's Life
66(3)
In the Blessed Trinity reside the Sources of the Church's life
The visible missions of the Son and the Spirit
The effusion of Pentecost is Christ-conforming
The invisible missions
The Holy Spirit, Efficient Cause of the Church
69(8)
The Spirit animates the Church
The Spirit is the supreme responsible subject of the Church's activities
The Spirit rules the Church by a special providence
The Holy Spirit moves and fills the Church
The dialogue between the Word and the Spirit, between the Bridegroom and Bride
The Holy Spirit Is the Guest of the Church by the Presence of Inhabitation
77(6)
The presence of inhabitation in heaven
The presence of inhabitation here below
The presence of inhabitation is appropriated to the Holy Spirit
The relation between grace and the indwelling
The full collective indwelling of the Spirit
The full grace of Christ calls forth the full dwelling of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit, Uncreated Soul of the Church
83(7)
He moves the Church exteriorly as a causal and efficient Principle
83(1)
He is the Guest whom the Church is destined to receive
84(1)
The Holy Spirit, Soul of the Church: in heaven, by the transformation of knowledge effected by the beatific vision; here below, by the transformation of love effected by charity
84(6)
The testimony of the mystics
Scriptural foundations of this doctrine
The Blessed Virgin in the Church
90(9)
The Blessed Virgin, Worthy Mothers of God
90(2)
The reason for the divine maternity
The divine maternity, cause of all the Blessed Virgin's privileges
The relation between the doctrine on the Blessed Virgin and the doctrine on the Church
The Blessed Virgin, the Supreme Realization of the Church
92(4)
The purity in the Church and in the Virgin
Co-redemption in the Church and in the Virgin
The glorification of the Church and of the Virgin
The Place of the Blessed Virgin in the Time of the Church
96(3)
The saints of the Gospels belong either to the age of expectation of Christ or to the age of the Holy Spirit
It is the Virgin's privilege to belong to the age of Christ's presence
The collective grace of the whole Church is condensed and intensified in the Blessed Virgin
The Virgin at Pentecost
The entire Church is Marian
The Apostolic Hierarchy
99(69)
The Role of the Hierarchy
99(6)
The chain of apostolicity
The reason for a hierarchy
A general response
The immediate response: two actions of Christ, one from a distance, the other by contact
Preeminence of action by contact
The action of continued contact by the hierarchy
The hierarchy will no longer exists in heaven
Two types of hierarchical powers
The Power of Order
105(10)
The power of worship common to all the members of the Church
105(6)
The supreme priesthood of Christ and the ministerial priesthood of Christians
Christian worship
Christian worship is messianic and eschatological
The valid exercise of Christian worship presupposes a power to worship, conferred by consecration
The power of worship in the baptized and the confirmed
Distinction between the sacramental characters and the sacramental graces
Consecration for worship and moral sanctity
The priesthood of the faithful
The power of order
111(3)
The nature of the power of order
Scriptural foundations
Patristic foundations
Divisions and degrees of the power of order
The role of the power of order in the Church
114(1)
It is Jesus himself who, by his ministers, baptizes and consectrates
The grandeurs of the hierarchy are at the service of the grandeurs of sanctity
The Pastoral Power of Jurisdiction
115(40)
The privileges of the apostles as founders of the Church
116(6)
The Church was formed primarily by Christ and secondarily by the apostles
The apostles are eye-witnesses of Jesus' life and Resurrection
The apostles promulgate certain sacraments
The apostles have an exceptional prophetic knowledge of the substance of Christian revelation
The apostles are helped by verbal or scriptural inspiration in order to teach the deposit that was entrusted to them
The extraordinary power of organization and government
The gift of miracles
Intransmissibility of the apostolic privileges
Peter's transapostolic jurisdictional privilege
122(7)
Three important scriptural texts
Peter founded the Church in a new way
The flock of Christ's sheep
The transapostolic privilege is transmissible
The primacy of Peter is jurisdictional
A brief difference between Peter and Paul
The First Vatican Council's teaching on the primacy of Peter
A text from Soloviev
The mystery of the Incarnation in relation to the Eucharist and the primacy of Peter
The bishops, successors of the apostles
129(7)
The apostles simultaneously receive the intransmissible powers necessary to found the Church and certain transmissible powers necessary to conserve the Church
The passing from the apostolic age to the postapostolic age
The apostolic succession: the mandate of Christ extends to the successors of the apostles
The birth of the episcopate
The rule of truth according to St. Irenaeus
The episcopate is in charge of a particular or local Church
The powers of the bishop as pastor of his particular flock
The bishop is head only in the name of Christ
The universal or supreme jurisdiction of the pope
136(6)
The providential reason for a supreme jurisdiction
The use of the particular power of the bishops is regulated, and at times limited, by the universal power
The collegial jurisdiction of the bishops united to the pope
Scriptural foundations
The witness of the past
The one regime by divine right
The jurisdiction of the pope is full, immediate, and proper or ordinary
The successor of Peter is the bishop of Rome
The Roman Church, the humble name of the universal Church
The task or instances of the jurisdictional power and the assistance of the Holy Spirit
142(13)
The power of order is, in itself, infallible, but the power of jurisdiction will be fallible without divine assistance
Human faltering and divine assistance
Three tasks or instances of jurisdictional power
The declarative power is charged with transmitting from generation to generation the divine deposit received through the early Church
The deposit is transmitted only by being explained
The Magisterium is not above the Word of God but above the interpretations that men give to the Word
The assistance promised to the declarative power is proper and absolute
The assent of theological faith
That which is defined as irrevocable, without being defined as revealed
The canonical power proclaims the secondary message of the Church. Its nature
Foundations in Scripture
The prudential assistance of the canonical power
The measures of general order and the measures of particular order
The infallible prudential assistance and the fallible prudential assistance
Divine faith and ecclesial faith
The empirical existence of the Church
Hierarchical and private forms of prophecy
Conclusion on the jurisdictional powers
Apostolicity, the Mysterious Property and Miraculous Mark of the Church
155(13)
Apostolicity comprises vertically a mediation and horizontally a succession
155(2)
The mysterious property of apostolicity
The properties are mysterious, the marks are miraculous
Apostolicity as a mark or miraculous sign of the true Church
157(11)
Apostolicity as a mixed sign, the argument from prescription
The continuity of the hierarchy
Continuity of jurisdictional primacy
Apostolicity as a pure sign, or the miracle of the constancy of the Church
The constancy of the hierarchy
Constancy of doctrine
The constancy of the social communion
The argument that the stability of the Church is knowable already by common sense
The apostolic structure of the Church was foretold
Conclusion
The Created Soul of the Church
168(39)
The Soul of the Church
168(19)
The nature of the created soul of the Church
168(5)
The Church, insofar as she issues forth from the hierarchy, is holy
The uncreated Soul and the created soul of the Church
The soul of the Church is charity insofar as it is cultic, sacramental, and directed
Can charity be the soul of the Church?
Charity insofar as it is cultic
173(2)
Christic charity is centered on the sacrifice of the Cross
The entire prayer of the Church is cultic
Charity insofar as it is sacramental
175(9)
Contact with Christ and sacramental charity
Sacramental charity is connatural, filial, and complete
Divisions of sacramental graces
The diversity of the sacramental graces
The sacramental grace of the Eucharist
The Eucharist is the home of all sacramental charity
Charity insofar as it is directed
184(2)
The interior influx and the exterior teaching of Christ
The powers of prophecy are at the service of the powers of charity
Interiorization of the jurisdictional directives
The twofold unity of the Church: the unity of connection and the unity of direction
186(1)
The mystical unity of connection and the prophetic unity of direction
The unity of communion
The Route of the Church
187(9)
Christians pulled along in the wake of Christ. The teaching of St. Paul
Christic grace aims to imprint on the Mystical Body the likeness of Christ's interior states
Christic grace and the inclination to martyrdom
The notion of martyr is essential to the definition of the present Church
The co-redemptive mission of the Church
Revealed foundations of the notion of co-redemptive activity
Redeemed members and members who are co-redeemers
The Communion of the Church
196(11)
The factors of unity
196(2)
The perfect unity of the Church
Intercommunion of Christians
The Holy Spirit, supreme principle of unity
The spiritual interdiffusion of charity
198(5)
The spiritual aspect of charity
Charity desires to elevate what is done elsewhere with little love
Charity desires to be raised up by what is done elsewhere with a greater love
Each one is in the whole, and the whole is in each one
The communion of saints
203(4)
The communion of saints is one of the names of the Church
The bond of this communion is charity
This communion overcomes the barriers of the world
The communion in space and time
Christians are the center of the spiritual communion of the entire world
The Apostles' Creed
The Sanctity of the Church
207(26)
Sanctity as Realized in the Church
207(11)
The Church is not without sinners; she is nevertheless without sin
208(9)
The Church is not without sinners
The Church is nevertheless without sin
The Church is disturbed by sin
The Church who does not sin, but repents and converts
The Church asks not to sin
In what sense does the Church ask to be purified?
How does the historian define the Church?
How does the theologian define the Church?
The Church is immaculate
A progression in ecclesiology
All there is of true sanctity in the world is already the concern of the Church of Peter
217(1)
The two zones of the Church: one perfected, the other initial
The true goods of dissidents are already those of the Church
Sanctity insofar as It Is Tendential in the Hierarchical Powers
218(6)
Instrumental sanctity in the powers of order
219(1)
The ministerial sanctity of the powers of jurisdiction
219(5)
The power of order is strictly instrumental; the power of jurisdiction is ministerial only
The necessity of assistance for the powers for the jurisdiction
The degrees of assistance
Why is the assistance fallible in the area of particular and biological directives?
The Christian attitude in the presence of the possible failures of the canonical power
How the failings of inferior canonical proceedings are already repudiated by the superior canonical proceedings
The Church herself is without spot or wrinkle
Sanctity as a Property and Mark of the Church
224(9)
The nature and definition of the Church's sanctity
224(2)
Sanctity passes from Christ into the Virgin, the Church, and the faithful
Sanctity is charity
How does one circumscribe and recognize the Church's sanctity?
The mystery of the Church's sanctity
226(1)
The sanctity of the Church is greater than that of each of her children
All of the Church's sanctity is evangelical
The miracle of the Church's sanctity
227(6)
The sanctity of Christ is miraculously manifested in the physical order and in the moral order
The Church's sanctity is also miraculously manifested in the physical order and in the moral order
Three signs of the Church's sanctity
Do not judge the Church according to what she is not
The Church's sanctity was foretold
The Body of the Church
233(53)
The Nature of the Body of the Church
233(6)
The Church is a compound of body and soul
Like Christ, the Church, which is Christ's Mystical Body, is composed of spirit and flesh, visible and invisible
The corporal casing of Christ and the corporal casing of the Church
The union in the Church of the soul and body
Constitutive elements and adjacent elements of the Church's body
The definition of the body of the Church according to these constitutive elements
Three types of visible activities that manifest the Church: prophetic activities, cultic activities, activities of sanctity
The adjacent elements of the body of the Church
One can divide these elements into more categories
With what certitude can we delineate the body of the Church?
Three Properties of the Body of the Church
239(11)
The body of the Church is co-extensive with the soul of the Church
240(4)
The principle of co-extensivity and the created soul of the Church
Where the soul of the Church is, there is her body
The mode of the presence of the Church's soul determines the mode in which it vivifies her body; conversely, the latter reveals the former
Where there appears something of the Church's soul, there appears something of her body
The principle of coextensivity and the uncreated Soul of the Church
The work of Christ prepares the full coming of the Spirit
Where the Church is, there also is the Spirit; where the Spirit is, there also is the Church
The animating influence of the Holy Spirit touches even baptized sinners, as well as the unbaptized just
The Church has her own body, distinct from other temporal and religious formations
244(3)
The Church has her own body, distinct from temporal formations
The Church is the teacher of the nations
The Church has her own body, distinct from the bodies of other religious formations
By her body the entire Church is visible and transparent
247(3)
The transparency in Christ and in the Church
The transparency in Christ
The transparency in the Church
``All things are as veils that conceal God''
The Body of the Church Is Organic and Partitioned
250(22)
The hierarchical ecclesial activities and those that are not hierarchical
251(1)
Ecclesial or spiritual activities
Worldly and temporal activities
The clerical state of life
252(2)
Clerics are vowed to hierarchical functions
Clerics are vowed to sanctifying activities in a new way
Clerics are exempted as much as possible from temporal and secular activities
Clergy must ``exist and suffer with the people''
The lay state
254(9)
The laity are vowed to all non-hierarchical ecclesial activities
The role of the laity in the Church
Catholic Action
Catholic civic action
In addition to ecclesial activities, the laity have, as Christians, to perform the greater part of worldly activities
Christians, as members of the earthly city, must ``exist with the people''
The appeal of Pius XII to the laity
The other states of Christian life
263(8)
Marriage and the celibate life
The ``ordinary'' life and the ``perfect'' life
Other differences between the states of Christian life
271(1)
The City of God and the World
272(14)
The City of God and the cities of the world
272(10)
The realm of the spiritual and that of the temporal
These two realms are distinct, but they are not separate
The general subordination of the temporal to the spiritual
To act ``insofar as one is a Christian'' and to act ``as a Christian''
Direct interventions of the spiritual in the temporal
Christianity and Christendoms
Medieval Christianity
A new Christendom
The city of God and the city of evil
282(4)
The two ``mystical'' cities
The third city
Membership in the Church
286(39)
The first encounter with the Church
286(3)
The complete state and the imperfect states of the Church
The encounter with the Church is inevitable from the very dawn of the moral life
The content of the revealed message
The first presentation of the revealed message
The sins that divide the Church and the punishment of excommunication
289(8)
The sin of infidelity
The sin of heresy
The sin of schism
Excommunication
The different religious formations in their relation with the Church
297(9)
Normal religious formations
The deviated religious formations and the actual multiplicity of religions
Is sin the principle of these deviations today, or can it sometimes be simply error?
When is the Catholic message sufficiently proposed?
Religious deviations of a pre-Christian origin
The religious deviation of Judaism
Islam
Christian dissident religions
306(7)
The internal dialectic of a heretical church tends to transform it into a dissident church
The form of a dissident church
The Anglican Church
The Orthodox Church is not schismatic but dissident
The members of a dissident church
The separated churches and the Church from which they are separated
Atheistic formations
313(2)
The axiom: ``No salvation outside the Church''
315(10)
According to the New Testament, salvation comes by being incorporated in Christ and the Church
Three Gospel clarifications
The mystery of the axiom
The axiom among the Fathers
The desire for Baptism according to St. Ambrose
The axiom in the Church's Magisterium
Explanation of the axiom
The regime of manifest membership
The normal regime of the hidden membership before Christ
The abnormal regime of hidden membership after Christ
The distinction between ``Catholic'' and ``non-Catholic''
Conclusion
Catholic Unity
325(30)
The Mystery of Catholic Unity
325(18)
Definition of Catholic unity
325(2)
Etymological definition
Theological definitions
Catholic unity is essentially a unity of charity
Catholic unity is ``in'' this world without being ``of'' this world
327(3)
Catholic unity is not ``of'' this world
Catholic unity is ``in'' this world
Catholic unity is already realized by its essence and always in becoming by its dynamism
330(6)
The mystery of the Incarnation, realized from the first moment, unfolds all the way to the Ascension
The mystery of the Church, realized at Pentecost, unfolds all the way to the Parousia
Extensive catholicity or the expansion of the Church
The expansion of the Church reveals her to herself
The multiple potentialities of ecclesial grace
The integration into the Church of Christian elements or ``vestiges'' that exist in dissidents can require some renunciations
The pseudo-catholicity of the un-formed
Missiology
336(7)
The missionary dynamism of the Church proceeds from the divine missions
Missionary dynamism echoes the essential catholicity of the Church
The principle of missionary activity
The goal of missionary activity
The milieu of missionary activity
Definition of the missions
The Miracle of Catholic Unity
343(12)
The fact of Catholic unity
344(5)
It is a joint fact of a miraculous character
The miracle of Catholic unity among the Fathers
The testimonies of Newman and Moehler
Aspects of Catholic unity
349(3)
Unity of worship
The unity of orientation
The unity of communion in charity or the catholicity of sanctity
The catholicity of the Church was prophesied
352(3)
Mixed perspective
The simply rational perspective
Definitions of the Church
355(14)
Major definitions
355(1)
Minor definitions
356(13)
General definitions
Definitions of the Church of the New Law
Comparative definition
Conclusion
CONCLUSION
Unity without the cloud of division
The unity that divides but is not divided
Mutilated or divided unity
The coming
Appendix I The Mystery of the Church According to the Second Vatican Council 369(60)
Appendix 2 The Progress of the Church in Time 429(18)
Index of Scriptural Citations 447(8)
General Index 455

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