From the Spirit: Charisms as a Constitutive Principle for Catholic Ecclesiology.

Abstract

Catholic doctrine today teaches that charisms, together with hierarchical gifts, are ‘co-essential to the divine constitution of the Church’ (Iuvenescit Ecclesia). But do charisms truly pertain to the Church’s esse? Can Catholic ecclesiology genuinely treat the charisms as a constitutive principle? Could this be done while retaining the hierarchical-sacramental structure? And, if so, what does it mean for the future? The present study examines such questions. Initially, the thesis investigates the charismatic affirmation. To this end, the Second Vatican Council (especially Lumen Gentium 12, whose redaction history is reconstructed), the contrasting receptions of the Council’s teaching (in Hans Küng and Francis A. Sullivan), and the post-conciliar developments that afterward occurred (beginning with John Paul II and culminating with Iuvenescit Ecclesia) are each investigated. Through these investigations, the case is cumulatively made that charisms are indeed essential to the Church, and that this can have a transformative effect on ecclesiology when taken sufficiently seriously. Subsequently, the thesis explores this transformative power of charismatic essentiality. The theology outlined in the first section of the thesis is constructively applied to the question of structure, ministry, and order (in dialogue with critical comments from Pentecostal theologians), and then to the question of papal infallibility (in dialogue with critical comments from Orthodox theologians). In both areas, previously identified by ecumenical partners as Pneumatologically deficient, charisms are shown to be essential – a discovery substantially changing the way we think about each. For both, Pneumatological dynamism and the hierarchy’s place within the People of God necessarily come to the fore. Such insights, and others, are arrived at not through removing the hierarchical structure but by sufficiently integrating the charisms (as constitutive principles) within it. For the Church, the Body of Christ, is truly born of the Spirit.