This biannual learning unit is not being organized in 2024-2025 !
Teacher(s)
Language
French
Content
The introductory course in ecclesiology offers tools for understanding the functioning and organization of the Church today. The official documents that provide a better understanding of current issues in ecclesiology since the Second Vatican Council are: the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium and the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio.
From these conciliar texts, we will approach in this course the great themes of ecclesiology: the definition of the Church, the link between the common priesthood and ordained ministries, the place of the laity, the state of the dialogue between the Churches since the Second Vatican Council, the fundamental mission of the Church which is defined starting from its relationship with the world and its openness with non-Christian religions. Our study will be open and will even lead to the practical axis with a questioning on the pastoral scope or the pastoral anchoring of our reflections in our current society. Here, it is the highlighting of the articulation between ecclesiology and pastoral theology. Faced with the mutations of our secularized world, in a world that is moving, how can we understand the great ecclesiological reflections of the Second Vatican Council? In other words, does the ecclesiology of Vatican II make sense today?
These questions will allow students to have a critical look at the great debates about the evolution of the Church, but especially on its way of being in our so-called secularized society.
From these conciliar texts, we will approach in this course the great themes of ecclesiology: the definition of the Church, the link between the common priesthood and ordained ministries, the place of the laity, the state of the dialogue between the Churches since the Second Vatican Council, the fundamental mission of the Church which is defined starting from its relationship with the world and its openness with non-Christian religions. Our study will be open and will even lead to the practical axis with a questioning on the pastoral scope or the pastoral anchoring of our reflections in our current society. Here, it is the highlighting of the articulation between ecclesiology and pastoral theology. Faced with the mutations of our secularized world, in a world that is moving, how can we understand the great ecclesiological reflections of the Second Vatican Council? In other words, does the ecclesiology of Vatican II make sense today?
These questions will allow students to have a critical look at the great debates about the evolution of the Church, but especially on its way of being in our so-called secularized society.
Evaluation methods
There will be a continuous assessment of a short essay and group presentations. There will also be oral exam at the end of the course, part of which will depend on the short essay.
Bibliography
Water Kasper, The Catholic Church, Nature, Reality and Mission (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013)
Francis A. Sullivan, The Church We Believe In: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (New York: Paulist Press, 1998)
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002).
Thomas P. Rausch, Towards a Truly Catholic Church: An Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2005)
Joseph Famerée, “Local Churches, Universal Church and other Churches in Lumen Gentium,” Ecclesiology, Vol. 4, no. 1 (2007): 52-67.
Francis A. Sullivan, The Church We Believe In: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (New York: Paulist Press, 1998)
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002).
Thomas P. Rausch, Towards a Truly Catholic Church: An Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2005)
Joseph Famerée, “Local Churches, Universal Church and other Churches in Lumen Gentium,” Ecclesiology, Vol. 4, no. 1 (2007): 52-67.
Faculty or entity
