Chapter 2 Note 1: Identities of the Church

ReEd 4 – A Call to Action: An Introduction to the Catholic Social Thought

Church as Institution

People of God

Church as Mystical Communion

Body of Christ

Church as Sacrament

Temple of the Holy Spirit

Church as Herald

Bride of Christ

Church as Servant

Kingdom in Mission

Fr, Avery Dulles SJ

Creator of Models of Church that presents threefold thrust known as Dulles Model.

Kerygma

refers to the proclamation of the good news, the Gospel.

Koinonia

often translated fellowship or community, touches on all those elements which build up the body of Christ, the Church, and which create the new Israel, the new covenant, the new people of God

Diakonia

means service and extends the action of the Spirit to the world

keeps the Church from focusing its eyes only on the mystical and the supernatural and it helps it to become truly incarnated in the life around it

Church as Institution

No organization could long survive without a structure and a visible system of rights and duties of members, without a stable form of government, which assures continuity and effective action

Clericalism

people who are well-meaning and full of zeal, but not always aware of the total life of Church and especially of the spiritual and service dimensions.

Juridicism

whole set of documents marked guidelines and interpreted more rigorously than any Code of Canon Law ever was

Congregationalism

forgets the need for the existence of the sacramental ministry

Trusteeism

group of lay people controls all the material assets.

Lumen Gentium

One of the most important debates of the Second Vatican Council took place over the way to begin the document on the Church

Faithful

to characterize all the believers

I-Thou

our own personal relationship to GodC

Communion

fellowship or mutual bonding

Church as Sacrament

a sign and instrument of the union of which the human family possesses with God and with one another.

Christ

First Sacrament, since he is the visible sign of God’s self-gift of love to us. He is the “image of the invisible God,” revealing the Father to us