Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Hinsdale / The thesis of this dissertation is that the ecclesial reality of certain Protestant and Anglican communities cannot be adequately evaluated only in reference to the validity or invalidity of its Eucharist and ministry. The question this dissertation will address is whether recognition of some of these communities as "churches" in the theological sense might be possible using a different standard for understanding "church" and ecclesiality. This dissertation will pursue this question through an exploration of how amenable the writings of Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Cardinal Walter Kasper are to developing more adequate criteria for recognizing Protestant and Anglican communities as "churches" in the theological sense. The goal of this dissertation is to advance Catholic ecumenical ecclesiology beyond the current impasse over its inability to attribute the term "church" to those communities traditionally understood to possess an invalid Eucharist and ministry. This dissertation will draw on the theological works of both Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper in order to develop a theology of "ecclesial fruitfulness" as a more adequate standard for understanding "church." It will suggest that "ecclesial fruitfulness" is theologically rooted primarily in pneumatology. The Spirit is both the inner fruitfulness of God--God as pure, abundant and overflowing love--and also the condition and possibility of God self-communicating this ecstatic love in history. Creation is therefore the outflow of God's love and a participation in God's being. As the world originates in love, so also then is the world ordered towards fulfillment in love. The mystery of God's salvation for humankind is to be drawn up into the fruitfulness of the trinitarian God through a transformation of sinful individuality into an existence of openness and love. This is made possible in Jesus Christ, who is God's self-communicating love in person, God's loving reign, and the meaning of all reality. In Christ's death and resurrection, he becomes fruitful or "communicable" through giving of himself in the Spirit, and this ability to give of himself through the centuries is itself a fruit of the Paschal Mystery. The church, therefore, is to serve as a sign and icon of the Spirit of the risen Christ, who is the fruitfulness of God in and to the world. The "fruitfulness" of the church is thus the Spirit effectively realizing the mystery of God's salvation given in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Word, the celebration of the sacraments (particularly the Eucharist), and through fostering communion among all local churches and ecclesial communities. This dissertation will suggest that a Christian community that is "ecclesially fruitful" in the sense described here is theologically a "church." / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101668 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Paul, Sean Christopher |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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