This course looks at the grand themes of the Church—One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic—through the themes of the “communio ecclesiology” of Lumen Gentium, understood to be the fullest development of a tradition. Some of those themes are: “Sacrament,” “Mystery,” “body of Christ,” “people of God,” the relation between the universal Church and the local Church, hierarchical communion (collegiality and papal primacy), the nature and mission of the laity, the relation between the Catholic Church and other Churches and ecclesiastical communities, and between other religions (and those not professing one), and finally, between the Church and the world as such.
Selected Texts
Henri de Lubac, The Splendor of the Church.
Adrian Fortescue, The Early Papacy to the Synod of Chalcedon in 451.
Joseph Ratzinger, The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood.
Joseph Ratzinger, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today.
Joseph Ratzinger, Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church’s Marian Belief.
Faculty
Jonathan Bieler
Assistant Professor of Patrology and Systematic Theology
Dr. Bieler received his doctoral degree in theology at the University of Zürich (2017), with a dissertation in Patristics on the coherence of Maximus the Confessor’s thought, which is published by Brill (2019). He taught in the theological faculty at the University of Zürich and assisted the chair of Patristics with teaching and research. In his work, he strives to combine the usage of historical-critical methods with faithfulness to the Church’s living tradition.
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