What determines the constitution and limits of the church? Vatican II speaks in favor of a concentric understanding of ecclesial communion, using terms such as «fully incorporated», by «explicit intention», not «in unity of communion», «incomplete», «defective», and «in various ways». The three bonds which unite people to the Church are the profession of faith, the sacraments which express that faith, and the ecclesiastical government and communion that are at its service , keeping in mind that all human beings are (...) related implicitly to the Church . And so we can speak of «various ways» of belonging to the Church: full, partial, close, implicit and peripheral, but always understood in reference to the full communion in the Church. (shrink)

The article starts with the Catholic and ecumenical reception of the invitation of Ut Unum Sint to establish a fraternal and patient dialogue in order to «find a way of exercising the primacy, which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation» . It concludes with the proposal of ordo communionis primatus, the order of communion of primacy, where one would more formally distinguish between «habitual and daily» exercise of primacy (...) and the extraordinary and ultimate Petrine ministry in the Church. The hope is this «new situation» may provide a complete realisation of the ardent prayer of Jesus, which indeed is the title of the encyclical Ut Unum Sint, «that all may be one». (shrink)

Avant d'analyser Fides et ratio, l'A. reprend les réflexions récentes sur la théologie fondamentale effectuées à partir du Congrès International de Théologie Fondamentale de 1995 à l'Université Grégorienne de Rome et dans diverses publications postérieures jusqu'à la parution de l'encyclique. Puis il expose et développe les apports de cette dernière à la théologie fondamentale. Enfin il fait une proposition de structure de la théologie fondamentale.

What is the Word of God ? It is God Himself in His being for us, «in search of our Salvation», as distinct from the means of communicating this care, such as Scripture . The word of God is defined as «Scripture united with Tradition» , pointing out that it is with the latter, in its relation to the Church and its Magisterium, that is found the greatest theological gap. The Word of God can refer to the «sacramental presence" of (...) Christ: in its «exterior sign» , which is the Scripture as book and text; in its «interior sign» , which is Scripture as an «inspired» Book interpreted in the Church; and in its «ultimate reality» , which is the «truth for our salvation» , the final end of the Word of God. (shrink)

The first part is about the Gospel and unicity of the Word and examines the use of expression Gospel in DV as a synonym of the Christian Revelation. Particular attention is given to the formula viva vox Evangelii - from Y. Congar - as a parallel of lebendig Wort und eine Stimme in Luther . The second part is about the Doctrine and the plurality of languages and begins with the Church as believing in the Gospel; it develops four themes: (...) the essence of Christianity, theological pluralism, theology and magisterium, and doctrine and theology with some examples: the use of the Scripture, the problem of language, the theological value of experience, and the doxological dimension of the theology. (shrink)