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Overview
Drawing upon the methodology developed in his Dynamics of Theology (1990) and exemplified in Jesus Symbol of God (1999), Roger Haight, in this magisterial work, achieves what he calls an historical ecclesiology, or ecclesiology from below. In contrast to traditional ecclesiology from above, which is abstract, idealist, and ahistorical, ecclesiology from below is concrete, realist, and historically conscious.
In this first of two volumes, Haight charts the history of the church's self-understandings from the origins of the church in the Jesus movement to the late Middle Ages. In volume 2 Haight develops a comparative ecclesiology based on the history and diverse theologies of the worldwide Christian movement from the Reformation to the present. While the ultimate focus of the work falls on the structure of the church and its theological self-understanding, it tries to be faithful to the historical, social, and political reality of the church in each period.
Synopsis
Theologian Haight (theology, Weston Jesuit School of Theology) further develops his "historical ecclesiology," or ecclesiology from below, from his previous work Dynamics of Theology. He contrasts historical ecclesiology with that from above in that his method concentrates on the concrete, realistic, and historically sensitive rather than the abstract, idealist, and ahistorical. In this first of two volumes, covering the period from the beginnings of the Church to the middle ages, Haight uses the historical ecclesiology method to analyze historical, social and theological developments and prove the validity of his theories. He divides the eras under study into the times of the emerging Church, in the pre- and post-Constantinian eras, under Gregorian reform, and under conciliarism in the late medieval Church. The results are a new, and probably controversial explanation of Church history and the development of doctrine. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR