The Church We Believe in: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic

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Paulist Press, 1988 - 241 páginas
While it is generally recognized that differences in ecclesiology are the ones that constitute the most stubborn obstacles to Christian reunion, there are good grounds for hope in the fact that most Christians do agree in professing their faith in "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church." Indeed, honest facing up to the contradiction between our common faith in the "one church" and the divided state of Christianity is a prime motive for the ecumenical movement. It is true, of course, that the mere fact that Christians use the same words in professing their faith about the church does not eliminate their deep differences in ecclesiology. Profoundly divergent answers will be given when one asks: What do you mean when you say "the church"? and How do you understand it to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic? Ecumenical progress, then, calls for the effort to reach a common under- standing of the faith we profess. Theology has an important role to play here, because theology is defined as "faith seeking understanding." Ecumenical dialogue is most fruitful when it is a concerted effort, on the part of people coming from different theological traditions, to seek a deeper understanding of the creed in which they already profess a common faith, in the hopes that such a deeper understanding will get beneath their differences to the common ground where they are at one. An essential step in this process is for Christians to seek to deepen and clarify their understanding of their faith to the light of their own respective traditions. Such is the purpose of this book. What we are seeking here is an understanding of our profession of faith concerning the church, in the light of the Roman Catholic tradition. +

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Índice

The Church We Believe In
3
The One Church of Christ Suhsists in the Catholic Church
23
The One Church A Communion of Churches
34
Marked with a Genuine Though Imperfect Holiness
66
The Catholic Unity of the People of God
84
Universal Sacrament of Salvation
109
Sacrament of Integral Salvation
132
The Church Is Apostolic
152
Apostolicity in Ecumenical Dialogue
185
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic
210
Notes
225
Index of Names
236
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Pasajes populares

Página 68 - But you are a chosen race/ a royal priesthood/ a holy nation/ God's own people/ in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Página 46 - The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me
Página 82 - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Página 44 - Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John : who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
Página 80 - Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Página 37 - So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you are also built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Página 140 - Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.
Página 91 - Unto you first God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
Página 218 - And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,

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