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  • Christian Community in History. 2 Volumes: Volume 1: Historical Ecclesiology and Volume 2: Comparative Ecclesiology
  • Gerard Mannion
Christian Community in History. 2 Volumes: Volume 1: Historical Ecclesiology and Volume 2: Comparative Ecclesiology. By Roger Haight. Continuum, 2004. Volume I: 448 pages. $34.95. Volume 2: 528 pages. $34.95.

The esteemed Jesuit, Roger Haight, has written extensively in the fields of systematic theology, liberation theology, Christology, and, of course, ecclesiology itself. He excels in addressing where the churches and theology currently find themselves in the contemporary world and in suggesting ways forward for the future vis-à-vis the engagement of the churches with those across numerous other churches, religions, and beyond the confines of either. He champions the need for the church to embrace a dialogical mission. This represents his most extensive work to date in ecclesiology and is a monumental two-volume study in comparative ecclesiology, building upon the insights developed in recent years in the more general subdiscipline of comparative theology.

Inherent to the church throughout the Christian centuries, but pursued with a renewed vigor and sense of urgency in recent decades, is the quest for a vital, energizing, and sustainable way of being the community called church, both at the local and at the universal levels. But a problem arises when we are faced with competing versions of this very quest. There is a multitude of modern and contemporary ecclesiologies, most notably the now legendary clashes between the various ecclesiologies "from above" and "from below."

Although not unsympathetic to those who despair of the stereotypical nature of such binary compartmentalization, ecclesiologically it is not so difficult because theologically it may be to place many of scholars and church people with regard to where they stand on the question of the church–world relationship [End Page 517] and, dare one say, even more so on the questions of the relationship between nature and grace.

Roger Haight's work here is groundbreaking in the approach that it takes and the methodology it develops, but he also acknowledges that it is a type of the broader group of approaches that pursue their ecclesiological analysis "from below." This typology is to be contrasted, then, with other approaches in recent decades as well as in other periods of ecclesial history.

And so, with regard to the methodological nuances that separate an "ecclesiology from above" and an "ecclesiology from below," Roger Haight devotes part 1 of volume 1 to "The Question of Method." Here, he explains that the latter type of ecclesiology (acknowledging that we are here utilizing "ideal types") is equivalent to a "historical ecclesiology" and is analogous to the procedure of "Christology from below." The method of an ecclesiology from below is one that is, first, "concrete, existential, and historical" (vol. 1: 4). Second, it takes a "genetic approach," being attentive to any particular ecclesiology's "origins as well as its journey from them to the present" (vol. 1: 5, 69–71).

This method also acknowledges that the church is an organization within which, and upon which, social forces have an impact. Thus, we should utilize social and historical analysis to examine the church itself, for "the social and historical situation within which the church exists" is "crucial for understanding its full reality" (vol. 1: 5). The fourth defining characteristic of this method is that an ecclesiology from below is nonetheless a theological discipline "and as such cannot be reduced to conclusions that can be generated by history or sociology alone" (vol. 1: 5). Nonetheless, it is important to discern precisely how the historical and sociological aspects relate to the theological dimension of such an ecclesiology. For Haight this is because, namely, "this church is experienced religiously or theologically because in it and through it people recognize the presence and activity of God." Likewise, the ecclesiological employment of symbols "pointing and referring to God" displays the role of "theological imagination and judgment" in the process (vol. 1: 5).

For Haight the converse ecclesiological "ideal type," namely, an "ecclesiology from above" is marked by an (somewhat precritical) attempt to offer an account of the "essential nature and structure of the church that transcends any given context" (vol. 1: 19). This...

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