The Splendor of the Church

by Henri de Lubac

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 1999

Overview

Considered by many the bright jewel among the many enriching books of Cardinal Henri de Lubac, this work is a hymn to the beauty of the Church. Having suffered unjustly under Church leadership for a time, The Splendor of the Church is a personal testimony of this great theologian’s humility and love of the Church of Christ. It is also a classic work in theology. Cardinal de Lubac’s profound insights significantly contributed to Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium—especially in its treatment on the Church as mystery and as the Sacrament of Christ.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The Church, ‘the sacrament of man’s salvation’, is not the result of some fresh plan, as it were, on the part of God, nor of any ‘belated pity’; it does not matter how far back you go, you still find her.⁴⁹ Before the Law of Moses, the Church existed under the ‘law of nature’; she exists ab exordio saeculi.⁵⁰ There has always been a people of God and a vine that the Father tends unceasingly;⁵¹ the union of Christ and his Church is prefigured in the union of Adam and Eve. Here, says St. Paul, is a ‘high mystery’,⁵² that very mystery which was to be revealed in its fullness ‘in the fullness of time’.” (Pages 61–62)

“It is the Church’s tradition that sustains this tremendous harmony and her operative power³⁰ that directs it. Yet it is not the result of a sort of biological mimicry or of an agreement laboriously reached. The voice of the one Spirit, speaking to his Bride, finds an echo in the depths of each individual consciousness, and correspondingly, it is the same faith, hope, and charity everywhere; the outward expression of a unity that goes down to the roots, and the blazing up of one single flame.” (Page 58)

“All her teaching is a lie if she does not announce the Truth which is Christ;⁷² all her glory is vanity if she does not find it in the humility of Christ.⁷³ Her very name is something foreign to us if it does not at once call to mind the one Name given to men for their salvation.⁷⁴ If she is not the sacrament, the effective sign, of Christ, then she is nothing.” (Page 219)

“man must not separate what God has united—therefore ‘let him not separate the Church from the Lord.” (Pages 158–159)

Product Details

• Title: The Splendor of the Church
• Author: Henri de Lubac
• Publisher: Ignatius
• Print Publication Date: 1999
• Logos Release Date: 2018
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church › Doctrines; Church
• ISBNs: 9780898707427, 0898707420
• Resource ID: LLS:SPLENDORCHURCH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:55:33Z

About Henri de Lubac

Cardinal Henri de Lubac (February 20, 1896–September 4, 1991) is considered one of the outstanding theologians of the twentieth century. He was born in France and became a Jesuit priest in 1927. He taught theology at the Catholic University of Lyon from 1929 to 1961. His courses were interrupted twice, once by World War II and again from 1950 to 1958 over a disagreement with Pope Pius XII on certain points of dogma. After these “dark years” ended de Lubac was returned to teaching and grew in influence as a theologian. He was instrumental in shaping the Second Vatican Council and admired by successive pontiffs, eventually accepting an appointment to the cardinalate from Pope John Paull II. He wrote numerous books on spiritual and theological topics including The Christian Faith, Aspects of Buddhism, Catholicism, Corpus Mysticum, and The Eternal Feminine: A Study on the Poem by Teilhard de Chardin.