We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Ecclesial Foundations from Above
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
This paper addresses the foundations of the Church systematically as it originates in the Triune God's plan of salvation. The Church is an extension of the missions of the Son and Spirit in history. Analogies are invoked to help ground the nature and the mission of the of the Church. The paper further explores the implications of Ecclesia de Trinitate in light of Vatican II, the visible and invisible missions of the Son and the Spirit, the role of Mary and the multi‐religious context.
1 Dadosky, John D., ‘Towards a Fundamental Re‐Interpretation of Vatican II.’Heythrop Journal, 49 (September, 2008): 742–763CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Schroeder, Roger MM, What is the Mission of the Church? (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008), pp. 112–127Google Scholar.
3 Lubac, Henri de, The Splendor of the Church, trans. Mason, Michael (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999), p. 103–4Google Scholar.
4 See Dadosky, John, ‘Who/What is/are the Church(es)?’Heythrop Journal 52/5 (2011): 785–801CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 For examples from other documents of Vatican II, see Dadosky, John, ‘The Church and the Other: Mediation and Friendship in Post‐Vatican II Roman Catholic Ecclesiology’, Pacifica 18 (October, 2005), pp. 306–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Merton, Thomas, Asian Journal (NY: New Directions, 1973), 313Google Scholar.
7 His philosophical problems aside, I am sympathetic to Duns Scotus when he speculates that the Word would have incarnated even if sin had not entered the created order. While to some extent it is frivolous to speculate what God could or would have done, and certainly there are no divine afterthoughts, still, it is important to keep in mind that part of the significance of the Incarnation is that God joins the human race—it is divine affirmation of God's creation.
8 I am prescinding for the time being from speaking of the invisible missions, and so do not mean to contradict the profound insight of Fred Crowe's article on the topic of the missions of the Son and the Spirit in relation to the World's Religions— Frederick Crowe has developed this idea in his ‘Son of God, Holy Spirit, and World Religions,’ in Appropriating the Lonergan Idea (Washington, D.C., CUA Press, 1989): 324–343Google Scholar.
9 See Lumen Gentium II, 14.
10 Schwager, Raymond, Jesus and the Drama of Salvation (New York: Crossroads, 1999)Google Scholar; Daly, Robert S.J., Sacrifice Unveiled: The True Meaning of Christian Sacrifice (London: T&T Clark, 2009)Google Scholar; Kirwan, Michael, Girard and Theology (New York, T&T Clark, 2009)Google Scholar; Doran, Robert M., ‘The Non‐violent Cross: Girard on Redemption,’Theological Studies, 71/1(2010): 46–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Girard, René, I See Satan Fall Like Lightening, (tr.) Williams, J. G. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001)Google Scholar.
12 See Dadosky, John, ‘Woman Without Envy: Toward Re‐conceiving the Immaculate Conception,’Theological Studies, 72/1 March (2011): 15–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘‘Naming the Demon’: The ‘Structure’ of Evil in Lonergan and Girard.’Irish Theological Quarterly. 2010 75/4 (November): 355–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Congar, Yves, This Church That I Love, tr. Delafuente, Lucien (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1969), 23Google Scholar.
14 Tradigo, Alfredo, Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, (tr.) Sartarelli, Stephen (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Museum, 2006), 235Google Scholar; source not cited.
15 Lonergan, Bernard, The Ontological and Psychological Constitution of Christ, CWL, 7. Crowe, F. E. and Doran, R. M.. (eds); Shields, M. (trans.). (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 147 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 See Montfort, Louis de, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Faber, F. (tr.) (TAN Books and Publishers, Inc : 2007)Google Scholar.
17 Dadosky, John, ‘The Official Church and the Church of Love in Balthasar's Reading of John: An Exploration in Post‐Vatican II Ecclesiology.’Studia Canonica, 41 (2007), pp. 468–471Google Scholar.
18 Schwager, Raymond, Jesus and the Drama of Salvation (New York: Crossroads, 1999)Google Scholar; Daly, Robert S.J. Sacrifice Unveiled: The True Meaning of Christian Sacrifice (London: T&T Clark, 2009)Google Scholar; Kirwan, Michael, Girard and Theology (New York, T&T Clark, 2009)Google Scholar; Doran, Robert M., ‘The Non‐violent Cross: Girard on Redemption,’TS, 71/1(2010): pp. 46–61Google Scholar;
19 The passage reads: ‘For he knew that it was out of envy that they had handed him over.’ (NAB translation).
20 ‘But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things,(127) and as Saviour wills that all men be saved.(128) Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.(19*) Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.(20*) She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life’ (Lumen Gentium, II, 16).
21 They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. The bonds which bind [us] to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion. [One] is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity. [One] remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a ‘bodily’ manner and not ‘in [one's] heart.’(12*) (Lumen Gentium, II, 14; emphasis added).
22 Congar, Yves, This Church That I Love, (tr.) Delafuente, Lucien (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1969), p. 44–5Google Scholar.
23 I am not applying these distinctions as Aquinas does in Question 43, Prima Pars of the Summa, but the language is inspired by him.
24 Crowe ‘Son of God, Holy Spirit, and World Religions.’
25 Crowe, ‘Son of God, Holy Spirit, and World Religions,’ 335.
