In a recent post on The Continuum blog (continuing Anglican), I commented:
Taking this posting to be, broadly, about ecclesiology, I'd like to recommend to those wanting to read current Catholic thinking to look at a recently translated book by Maximilian Heim: Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology - Fundamentals of Ecclesiology with Reference to Lumen Gentium. Yes, does sound more like a dissertation title. The second edition/English translation (2007) has a forward by Pope Benedict XVI.
I'd like to read something comparable from an Anglican but wouldn't know where to find it. The situation is, in my opinion, much like that within Eastern Orthodoxy: After a lecture a year or two ago, I said to David Bentley Hart that I was looking forward to reading what he had to say about ecclesiology and he replied (not exact quote): I don't know if I have anything to say..everyone has their own opinion...
Which I found rather sad.
and also
Wanted: a coherent and comprehensive setting forth of ecclesiology in an in-print book of 300+ pages with some right to authoritively represent contemporary Continuing Anglican understanding.
Wanted: a coherent and comprehensive setting forth of ecclesiology in an in-print book of 300+ pages with some right to authoritively represent contemporary Eastern Orthodox understanding.
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3 comments:
Re Dr. Hart's comment and Orthodox ecclesiology, I guess this depends on exactly WHAT you want to know about the Orthodox conception of same. As I don't have to tell you, the Orthodox have never felt the need to define every jot and tittle of what they believe are essentially mysteries. So if you're looking for rigorous Thomist logic about, say, the boundaries of the Church, you won't get it from the Orthodox. This is not "sad," because it's not regarded as a shortcoming -- it is, rather, merely to face reality as it is. This in turn means that the situation won't change in the future, because it's not perceived as a problem that has to be fixed. I admire the bright daylight with which Roman theologians have illuminated some problems. This Apollonian clarity is appropriate to some things, but not others.
Well yes, Seth, I understand that. For that matter, my favorite Catholic writings on ecclesiology aren't in the legalistic style (and lots of Aquinas isn't either).
There are lots of ways to write about ecclesiology, I think. My current interest is in articulating internal structure and interconnections, in some manner. But it is hard to find the appropriate resources.
Speaking of writing about ecclesiology, one underappreciated source is Christina Rossetti's "Verses," and the books from which that compilation came, e.g. The Face of the Deep.
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