Journet, Congar, and the Roots of Communion Ecclesiology
Dennis Doyle1997, Theological Studies
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Abstract
The author compares the ecclesiologies of Charles Journet and Yves Congar in order to trace out two different strands of reform leading into Vatican II. Congar's emphasis on historical development is complemented by Journet's focus on the mystical and essential. The result is a more differentiated understanding of the preconciliar strategies that came to fruition as communion ecclesiology, as well as a retrieval of J our net's contribution to conciliar theology.] C OMMUNION ECCLESIOLOGY focuses on relationships in order to understand the Church. This theological approach begins with "communion" among God and human beings, and then applies this concept analogously to sacrament, ministry, ecumenism, and church-world relations. Communion ecclesiology has taken on significant importance of late in Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant circles. In "The Final Report" of the Extraordinary Synod of 1985, the bishops presented communion ecclesiology as the key to a proper understanding of Vatican II. They called communion "the central and fundamental idea of the council's documents." 1 More recently, Joseph Ratzinger said of communion ecclesiology that "ultimately there is only one basic ecclesiology." 2 The World Conference of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches held in Santiago de Compostela in August 1993 was devoted to the theme of the Church as communion. 3 DENNIS M. DOYLE, who holds a Ph.D. degree in religious studies from the Catholic University of America, is associate professor at the University of Dayton. His earlier study "Möhler, Schleiermacher, and the Roots of Communion Ecclesiology" appeared in the September 1996 issue of TS. He is also the author of The Church Emerging from Vatican II (Twenty-Third, 1992). 1 Origins 14 (December 19, 1985) 448. 2 L'Osservatore Romano [English ed.] (June 17, 1992) 1. 3 See the publication of papers and addresses from this meeting, On the Way to Fuller Koinonia: Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, Faith and Order Paper 166, ed. Thomas F. Best and Günther Gassmann (Geneva: WCC, 1994). Among the presenters, who represented a wide range of churches, was the Roman Catholic Jean-Marie Tillard, whose Eglise d'églises: L'ecclésiologie de communion (Paris: Cerf, 1987) is currently the best contemporary Catholic rendering of communion ecclesiology. Also presenting was the Metropolitan of Pergamon, John Zizioulas, whose profound Being as Communion (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's, 1985) offers an Orthodox approach. THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Communion ecclesiology, however, exists in different versions. 4 The purpose of this article is to explore comparatively two lines of thought within the Catholic theological tradition that led into Vatican II, those associated with Charles Journet and Yves Congar. This study is intended to help correct facile notions of preconciliar theology as well as to contribute to a more differentiated understanding of contemporary communion ecclesiology. I also hope to aid in the retrieval of the work of Journet and appreciation for his historical and ecclesiological contributions. 5 One issue at stake in this comparison can already be found in Johann Adam Möhler's seminal work Unity in the Church (1825), a prototype of modern communion ecclesiology. 6 Möhler blends historical consciousness with an ideal vision of the Church. 7 An abstract, ahistorical view of the Church will not do; on the other hand, a historicized Church with no room for ideal images also misses the mark. Vatican IFs Lumen gentium holds in tension the historical and eschatological dimensions of the Church. Yet not all 20th-century versions of communion ecclesiology have retained this balance. The French Dominicain Yves Congar (1904-1995) stands as one of the great figures whose work lead up to Vatican II. 8 Along with the contributions of his Jesuit compatriot Henri de Lubac, his work is synonymous with the development of communion ecclesiology in the mid-20th century. Congar acknowledged the strong influence of 4 Contrast, e.g.
Key takeaways
- Catholic understanding of "Church" before Vatican II was in fact complex and multivalent, though in certain respects the Church appeared to be identical with the hierarchy, and what the hierarchy taught was what "the Church" taught.
- Where Journet granted a wholesale exemption to the Church itself in relation to the world with its sin and decay 55 (which makes sense if the Holy Spirit is the formal cause of the Church), Congar established more of a dialectic between the Church as "mystery" and the Church as "historical reality."
- Like Journet, Congar portrayed a Church that is not simply a juridical institution, 61 but much more deeply a communion, the Mystical Body of Christ, a fellowship animated by the Holy Spirit.
- Although in one sense he studied the Church from historical and eschatological perspectives, what he saw as the Church's general "stages" or "ages" of the Church, he failed to follow Möhler or Congar in bringing together the mystery of the Church with its concrete engagement with history.
- Although Ratzinger acknowledges that the Church can be reformed in its human structures, his overall vision of the Church hearkens back to Journet: "For a Catholic... the Church is indeed composed of men who organize her external visage.
