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THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH Introduction DIFFICULT as it is to present an adequate picture o£ the present-day world, no one could deny that one contour which characterizes this age is the general feeling o£ estrangement among men. Because o£ this general feeling, the existential philosophers, so solicitous for personal integrity and inter-personal communication, have gained a wide-spread and sympathetic audience. It is also the reason the theology concerning the Church of Christ-a communion o£ love initiated by God to be shared in by all men through his Son-is especially important and relevant today. The great inner renewal which the Church hersel£ is presently undergoing can also be cited as justifying a theological essay on the nature of the Church. Some degree o£ insight into the mysteries involved in this study is really the key to an understanding of the direction and potentials of this renewal. At least a rudimentary introduction into ecclesiology is, therefore, a quasi-necessity for every informed member of the Church.1 It is also true that, especially since the Protestant Reformation , tracts entitled de Ecclesia have frequently been written. These, however, have been mostly in the field o£ apologetics. Authors who have modelled their works on that o£ St. Robert Bellarmine have intended principally to defend the right o£ the Roman Catholic Church to call hersel£ the " one, true Church," as distinguished not only from pagan religious bodies, but also£rom the various Christian denominations. 1 Despite the quantity of current literature in the field of ecclesiology, it is generally admitted that the masterful guides to be had in other spheres of theological study are lacking in this area. In the past fifty years, for example, excellent works have appeared on the subject of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ-all of which have been surpassed in excellence and authority by the encyclical, Mystici Corporis, of the late Pope Pius XII. 30 THEOLOGY OF THE CHURCH 31 One serious difficulty in the writing of such an essay is the amount of material involved in a complete treatment of ecclesiology . A full vision of the Church is a sort of synthesis of many elements taken from the entire theological discipline and welded together in a somewhat different form. If one reflects, for example, that ecclesiology is a study of the Church of Christ, it is evident that it must be based on a correct understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. Again, this Church is composed of men; so the study of it depends, in a certain measure, on an understanding of the potentialities of human nature created in God's image. The Church is, moreover, organized in a hierarchial way; and its activity is sacramental. To this extent ecclesiology is connected with the theology of the divine government of the universe and that of the sacraments instituted by Christ. Since this is the case, the theology concerning the Church should not be the first subject taken up by a student of sacred doctrine. No less a theologian than St. Thomas apparently omits to treat explicitly of the mystery of the Church, at least in his great theological synthesis, the Summa Theologiae. Still this apparent lacuna in the works of St. Thomas does not mean that the Angelic Doctor fails to furnish the principles for developing a balanced ecclesiology. The contrary is true; and perhaps the text which is most relevant to the organization of this subject matter is the following: Even as in the order of natural things, perfection, which in God is simple and uniform, is not to be found in the created universe except in a multiform and manifold manner, so too, the fullness of grace, which is centered in Christ as head, flows forth to His members in various ways, for the perfecting of the body of the Church. This is the meaning of the Apostle's words: "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors for the perfecting of the saints " (Eph. 4: ll-1~). (Summa Theologiae, II, II, 183, ~, c.) It is clear that St. Thomas here compares the dependence of the Church on Christ...

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