"Church grows from within toward the outside, not vice versa."
-Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Church, Ecumenism, and Politics: New Endeavors in Ecclesiology. Translated by Michael J. Miller et al. San Franscisco: Ignatius Press, 2008, p. 15.
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5 comments:
Um.....Pat....um....ok....nevermind.
Erik? Sorry, I don't get your allusion, here.
I'm just kinda trying to gauge the meaning of finding this quote on your blog. I was dumbfounded and for some strange reason wrote it out and posted it.
Ha! Well, I didn't necessarily think this post "spoke for itself," but I thought it could be taken in a number of ways.
Simply, it challenges the overwhelming assumption of latent "church growth" theory that would state exactly the opposite.
Secondly, and more profoundly, I think, it suggests that one needs some sort of an ecclesiology--preferrably a 'higher' one--in order to make a statement like this. A lower, non-sacramental, pragmatic view of Church can't compute this.
Thoughts?
Pat,
Well done. I had not considered its implications regarding "church growth" theories. And, yes, that sacramental approach is as fundamental as it is overlooked or even frowned upon today. Why Wycliffe never had us read Aquinas on What is a Sacrament is beyond me. It would have cleared away much of the fog surrounding our contemporary eccleciologies.
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