Thinking the complex unity of the Church

Rémi Chéno, « Penser l’unité de la réalité complexe de l’Église (LG 8). Perspectives pour une nouvelle étape de la réflexion ecclésiologique catholique » [= “Thinking the complex unity of the Church (LG 8). Prospects for a new stage of Catholic ecclesiology reflection”], Revue théologique de Louvain 40 (2009) 340–358.

Contemporary Catholic ecclesiology has progressively centered itself on a few very precise technical expressions in the corpus of documents of the 2nd Vatican Council, the ecumenical implications of which were certainly important. However the discussions which they engendered have somewhat lost steam. An analysis of recent Catholic works on ecclesiology points to new areas of investigation which will have to face up to the difficult question of the unity of the complex reality which is the Church, as Lumen gentium, n. 8 says.

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