THE CHURCH: MYSTERY, SACRAMENT, SIGN, INSTRUMENT, SYMBOLIC REALITY

Abstract

Summary The article starts with the observation that the sacramentality of the Church has gradually become a central issue in the ecumenical discussion. It is, for example, one of the three themes which the Vatican's response to BEM recommends to the Commission on Faith and Order for further study. Similarly, a recent text issued by this Commission, on the Church as Mystery and Prophetic Sign, asks for the elucidation of the terms “sign” and “instrument”. And a French text argues, that a fundamental difference between Catholics and Protestants opens up in the understanding of the Church's instrumentality in the economy of salvation (I). The insistence with which Roman Catholic church-leaders put forward this theme in the ecumencial dialogues, corresponds to the importance some Roman Catholic theologians (A. Dulles, H. Doring, L. Boff, D. Salado Martinez) attribute to the “sacramental model” (II). The article shows furthermore that a shift in approach to the sacramentality of the Church has taken place. Wh...