The Biblical Metaphors of the Church as the "Body of Christ" and the "People of God" in the Ecclesiology of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Germany and in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/IS.2019.007

Keywords

Church, body oof Christ, People of God, Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium

Abstract

Reading Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, we can note that the mystery of the Church is explained on the basis of biblical metaphors. Two of them play a special role: the Body of Christ and the People of God. How did it happen that the theologians of the Council had assigned this special role to these metaphors while defi ning the Church? Did the theological movements of the previous centuries, especially in Germany, play a leading role in this choice? The answer to the above-mentioned questions is the topic of the present study.

Author Biography

Piotr Nyk, Carmelite Institute of Spirituality (Kraków)

Discalced Carmelite; PhD of theology at the University of Ludwig Maximilian in Munich (2003); province counsillor of the Kraków Province of Discalced Carmelite (2011-2017), i.a. responsible for Carmelite Nuns (2011-2015), since 2004 member of the Society of Polish Biblical Scientists; since 2019 member of the Society of Biblical Literature (Atlanta, USA); lecturer of biblical spirituality at Carmelite Institute of Spirituality in Kraków and its deputy haed; since 2015 co-editor and since 2016 senior editor of the „Itinera Spiritualia”; author of the books Die Tradition vom eschatologischen Krieg im Gemeindegebet Apg 4, 23–31 (Frankfurt am Main 2004), Eliasz Tiszbita (WKB, Kraków 2018) and author of many articles in the area of biblical spirituality.

References

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KOSTER M.D., Ekklesiologie im Werden, in: Volk Gottes im Werden. Gesammelte Studien (H.-D. Langer, O.H. Pesch, Hrsg.), Mainz 1971.

MÜLLER G.L., Katholische Dogmatik. Für Studium und Praxis der Theologie, Freiburg–Basel–Wien 1995.

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RAHNER K., Sämtliche Werke 18: Leiblichkeit der Gnade. Schriften zur Sakramentenlehre, Freiburg i. Br. 2003.

RATZINGER J., Das neue Volk Gottes. Beträge zur Ekklesiologie, Düsseldorf 1969.

RATZINGER J., Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. 8/1: Kirche – Zeichen unter den Völkern. Schriften zur Ekklesiologie und Ökumene (G.L. Möller, Hrsg.), Freiburg i. Br. 2010.

RICOEUR P., JÜNGEL E., Metapher. Zur Hermeneutik religiöser Sprache (Evangelische Theologie – Sonderheft), München 1974.

SEMMELROTH O., Die Kirche als Ursakrament, Frankfurt a. M. 1953.

Itinera Spiritualia. Commentarii Periodici Instituti Carmelitani Spiritualitatis Cracoviae

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Published

2019-12-01

How to Cite

1.
NYK, Piotr. The Biblical Metaphors of the Church as the "Body of Christ" and the "People of God" in the Ecclesiology of the 19th and 20th Centuries in Germany and in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council. Itinera Spiritualia. Commentarii Periodici Instituti Carmelitani Spiritualitatis Cracoviae. Online. 1 December 2019. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 117-136. [Accessed 5 July 2025]. DOI 10.12775/IS.2019.007.

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2019)

Section

articles

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