The conciliar vision of the Church

The conciliar vision of the church stems primarily, to be sure, from the dogmatic constitution LUMEN GENTIUM, but important elements of that visiion are found in all the conciliar documents. So e.g. the church is a pupil of the Word of God, and thereafter its teacher (DV 1 and 10), the church is in its being theandric (SC 2 = LG 8); SC 6 makes very clear the purpose of the church: it glorifies God and it announces salvation and to its members it also mediates salvation, especially in its sacramental liturgy. The author analyses the question what has been achieved by stressing that the church is the people of God, the emphasis which is important, among other things, for a more balanced relationship between hierarchy and laity. As regards the teaching on the hierarchy the Second Vatican Council was the necessary complement of the forcibly interrupted First Vatican Council. The relations between the pope and bishops, the bishops among themselves, and, as already mentioned, those between the hierarchy and laity have been better elucidated. This applies especially to the concept of the church as a brotherhood. The author elaborates the question of the purpose of the church as manifested tin the various conciliar documents: according to SC 2 the church, as already noted, is the glorifier of God and the announcer of salvation. According to AG the church is by nature a missionary. Of its essence is a coexistent and collaborating dialogue with the world (GS and DH). However, its special aim is the holiness of all its members (LG V and VI). In this context the author expatiates on the typology of lay holiness and on the theological value of everyday Christian life and endeavours. The holiness of the church is an emergent one (»acquirenda«), to be acquired while the church is on the way: its fullness will be reached in the eschaton (LG VII). There is, therefore, even for the church an »eschatological interim« which makes it possible to experience the church as a penitent church (cf. LG 40; UR 6 et al.). This leaves a space even for a necessary reform of the outworn elements in the church (LG 48 and UR 6). An important discovery is the clear theological formulation of the relationship with other Christians and with nonchnistian believers (LG 15 = UR; LG 16 = NA; LG 17 = AG), especially of the relations between the church and the world (GS and DH). The introduction of the teaching on the Virgin and Mother of God in LUMEN GENTIUM lends a distinctive Marian hue to the church: the church too is both virgin aind mother and all its internal and external pastoral efforts must be — motherly. The VIII chapter together with the I chapter paint the conciliar vision of the church as a mystery. Mysterious is already its visibility and so are its ostensibly visible structures. The writer points to the manifold connotation of the term »mystery« and connects it with the word »koinonia«: the church is a mystery of community on many levels