The Contribution of the Greek Patristic Idea to the Teaching of “Lumen Gentium” on the Nature of the Church

Abstract

e nature of the Church was expressed in Dogmatic Constitution on the Church“Lumen gentium” by numerous pictures and new expressions. ey refer to theBible and patristics. It is necessary to place special attention on two expressions.ese are: the mystery of the Church and the new people of God. e SecondVatican Council used these expressions to name two of titles of chapters of Lumengentium.In this article, the speeches of the Greek Fathers of the Church are detailedanalysed. e Council document refers to them in glosses only. ` numbers –4 in each chapter – contain references to Greek patristics. Totally, in +7 glossesto chapter I and II the Constitution refers to +5 Greek Fathers of the Church andto the anonymous patristic text of Didache. In the final part of this work thedevelopment of the patristic period was summarized in a chronological aspect.It began with Didache, then Irenaeus and John Chrysostom, and finally Johnof Damascus. In comparison to the whole Constitution with reference to thenature of the Church (as the mystery and new people of God) there is very littlepatristic inspiration.In this article, speeches of the Fathers of the Church were not only analysed,but also compared to council texts. anks to this, we see it as a shortanthology of patristic ideas.