The Flesh of the Church: De Lubac, Marion, and the Site of the Phenomenality of Givenness

Abstract

Jean-Luc Marion’s debt to Henri de Lubac is significant, particularly regarding his theology of the Eucharist. However, de Lubac’s ecclesiology, I believe, can also be substantially enriched by coming into contact with the philosophical categories of Marion’s thought, particularly his notion of the saturated phenomena. The purpose of this article is to explore what this enrichment would look like, and how the wedding of these minds in the field of ecclesiology offers a new contribution to contemporary thinking about the Church. The article begins with an analysis of de Lubac’s rich theological thought, and then turns to Marion in order to explore the contribution of his new philosophical categories for de Lubac’s theological thought.