Church: A Spirited Communion

Michael G. Lawler · Thomas J. Shanahan

Jan 1995 · Theology and Life Series Book 40 · Liturgical Press

About this ebook

Theologians today take for granted that the principal achievement of the Second Vatican Council was its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium. The central core of this central document - its Vision of Church as communion - is also being taken for granted. But this Vision was hard won - or, rather, recovered - at the Council, and its significance should not be allowed to fade with time or familiarity.

The Church: A Spirited Communion emanates from the ecclesiology of Vatican II as a systematic treatment of this Vision of communion: graced, prophetic, sacramental, spiritual, and ministerial. It is about a Church in communion with the laity, the hierarchy, and with all the Churches. Since Church" is God in communion with the faithful, this book is primarily theo-logical and only secondarily ecclesio-logical. It is primarily about the God who is Triune, who calls the Church into existence, and who seeks in every age a people who adhere to "God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

About the author

Michael G. Lawler, PhD, Amelia and Emil Graff Professor Emeritus of Catholic Theology at Creighton University, received his training in theology at Dublin, Oxford, Rome, and St. Louis. He was a member of the Theology Department at Creighton for thirty-five years and is a prolific lecturer and writer. He has published twenty-two books and some 150 scholarly essays on topics related to sacraments, marriage, and sexuality. His most recent books are co-authored with Todd Salzman: the award winning and best-selling The Sexual Person: Towards a Renewed Catholic Anthropology (Georgetown University Press, 2008); Sexual Ethics: A Theological Introduction (Georgetown University Press, 2012). Dr. Lawler and his wife Susan have three adult children and four grandchildren.