Lucian Păuleţ: Yves Congar’s Vision on the Role of the Holy Spirit Regarding the Unity of the Church in his Late Writings

This article is the last of a series of three studies on the role of the Spirit regarding the ecclesial unity in Yves Congar’s theological thought. It presents Congar’s understanding of the Spirit as co-institutor of the Church together with Christ. In his early writings, Congar understood the Spirit as the soul of the Church which animated the structures founded by Christ. In his middle career, Congar developed a more nuanced role of the Spirit. However, throughout this time, the ecclesiological model used by Congar was Christological. In this article, one can see how Congar moved from those models toward a communion model of the Church in which the Spirit brings about and stimulates diversity in the Church. This novelty in Congar’s thought is, however, in continuity with his early thought.
More important is the overall conclusion at the end of these three studies that that ecclesiology and pneumatology developed and influenced mutually throughout Congar’s career (beginning in 1937 with his Chrétiens désunis/ Divided Christendom and not only in 1953 when he publishes “The Holy Spirit and the Apostolic College, Promoters of the Work of Christ”).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/IFRR3092

Dialog 52-7 Paulet

Lucian Paulet: Yves Congar’s Vision of the Role of the Holy Spirit Regarding the Unity of the Church: 1953-1971

This article is a follow-up of a previous study: “The Holy Spirit as the Principle of Ecclesial Unity in Yves Congar’s Early Writings,” which concluded that “Congar never understood unity as uniformity, but after 1946-1947, he became increasingly attentive to diversity and even defined the visible unity of the Church as communion”. It was only natural to continue the research on the same topic with the subsequent writings of Congar. Therefore, this article presents how Congar’s vision on the role of the Holy Spirit regarding the unity of the Church developed between 1952 and 1971. Which are some of his discoveries on the topic? Which are the factors that contributed to the development of his thinking during this period of time? Did his overall vision of the Church change?—these are some of the main questions that this article will try to answer.
“Le Saint-Esprit et le Corps apostolique, réalisateurs de l’oeuvre du Christ” (1952) opened a period when Congar emphasized a certain freedom of the Spirit with regard to the institutions of the Church (not with regard to the mission of Christ). This period included for Congar a discovery of diversity in the Church, the charisms of the Spirit, the status and role of the faithful, of the relation of the Church to the world, the rediscovery of the eastern tradition, the beginnings of a rediscovery of the Reform, a wide awareness of the modern ‘secular’ world. In Congar’s words, this was for him a period of “a mass sortie from the ghetto, which could also be called an emergence from the era of Constantine or of the Counter-Reformation with its largely polemical outlook.”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53438/ZZAO1631

Dialog 51-8 Paulet

Wilhelm Dancă: Sfântul Duh şi religiile necreştine

Nicolae Achimescu: Semnificaţia şi rolul Duhului Sfânt pentru viaţa noastră, astăzi

DT0110_pr Achimescu

Eduard Ferenţ: Un Duh şi două pneumatologii

DT019_Pr Ferent

Gheorghe Petraru: Relaţia Hristos-Duhul Sfânt în misiunea Bisericii

DT018_Petraru

Anton Ghiurcă: Lucrarea Duhului Sfânt în viaţa creştină şi a comunităţii

DT017_PR Ghiurca

Vladimir Petercă: Conceptul de Duh în cărţile sapienţiale

DT016_Pr. Peterca

Petru Semen: Revelarea lucrării Duhului Sfânt în Vechiul Testament

DT015_P Semen

Alois Bulai: Duhul Sfânt şi unitatea în credinţă

DT014_Pr Bulai