Books

Theology of the Church, by Cardinal Charles Journet

Reviewed by Michael Gilchrist

Contents - Dec 2004 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Religious literacy: why not a national inquiry? - Michael Gilchrist US and Australian election results: the cultural revolution challenged - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Gone fishing: Catholic Earthcare Australia adopts discredited Green agenda - Pat Byrne Administration: Cardinal Pell: Church administrators must put Christ's mission first - Cardinal George Pell English language: Will Rome ensure the completion of an improved Mass translation? - William Oddie Liturgy: Redemptionis Sacramentum on the liturgical rights of the faithful - CDF New Evangelisation: Rebuilding a lost Faith - Fr John Walter Archbishop Fulton Sheen: 25th anniversary - Martin Tobin Society: American surveys show advantages of sexual abstinence education Letters: Orthodoxy succeeds (letter) - Fr Adrian Head Letters: Seminary reforms (letter) - Fr Peter Thompson CM Letters: Election result (letter) - Maureen Federico Letters: Liturgical development (letter) - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Letters: Catholic youth (letter) - Robert Denahy Letters: Graham Greene a Catholic? (letter) - Malcolm Mackinnon Letters: Mass translation (letter) - Leo McManus Letters: 'Fem-speak' (letter) - C.V.Phillips Letters: Misunderstanding over 'Come As You Are' (letter) - Peter Hannigan Letters: Call to holiness (letter) - Mark Calleja Letters: Abortion (letter) - Maryse Usher Letters: Nihilism (letter) - Robert Prinzen-Wood Poetry: The Salami Treatment - Bruce Dawe Books: Decoding Da Vinci, by Amy Welborn - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Theology of the Church, by Cardinal Charles Journet - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Making Sense of Private Revelations, by Fr Paul Newton - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Books: Architects of the Culture of Death, by Donald DeMarco and Benjamin Wiker - Jodie Brown (reviewer) Books: Inspiring Christmas Gifts Reflection: Today is born to us a Saviour of the world - Pope John Paul II

(Ignatius, 2004, 505pp, Hardcover, $59.95. Available from AD Books)

Cardinal Charles Journet (1891- 1975) was a well-respected Swiss theologian who was elevated to Cardinal in 1965. Among his great contributions to Catholic theology was his massive two-volume work of ecclesiology, The Church of the Word Incarnate, which examined the nature and meaning of the Church according to the categories of Aristotelian causality: material, formal, efficient, and final.

Theology of the Church is a shorter version of that masterwork, especially created by Cardinal Journet for a popular readership. Some of Cardinal Journet's other books included The Meaning of Grace, What Is Dogma?, and The Meaning of Evil.

In his preface to the English edition of Theology of the Church, P. George Cottier, OP, Theologian of the Papal Household, wrote: "In the present work the brevity of the text hints at a catechetical style, so that the essentials can be easily understood and committed to memory and provide food for meditation; for the theology of Charles Journet naturally flowers into spirituality and prayer."

Later, Cottier summarises the paradoxical truths that Journet presents with his typical clarity and precision: "He shows how the Church, holy and without sins, is disturbed by sin, how she repents for it and converts and asks her members to be purified and not to sin. Her vocation is to carry redemption into the midst of the world. She meets sinners every-where. She does not content herself with touching them from afar; she places them in her heart to heal them by personal contact."

In his Foreword, Journet outlines the structure of Theology of the Church as follows: "After an initial presentation (chapter 1), the Church is joined to Christ (chapter 2) and to the Holy Spirit (chapter 3). She finds her supreme realisation in the Blessed Virgin (chapter 4). She issues forth from the apostolic hierarchy, from which she receives her property and note of apostolicity (chapter 5).

"In herself, she is composed of a created soul (chapter 6), from which come her property and note of sanctity (chapter 7), and a body (chapter 8). It was necessary to clarify the notion of membership in the Church (chapter 9) before treating the property and note of Catholic unity (chapter 10). From here, one can quite easily proceed to the definitions of the Church (chapter 11)."

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 17 No 11 (December 2004 - January 2005), p. 17