Kościół i misje w eklezjologicznej mysli Kardynała Avery'ego Dullesa SJ
The Church and Missions in the Ecclesiological Thought of Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ

Summary/Abstract: This article is based on Avery Cardinal Dulles’ ecclesiological thought, and shows the problem of relationship between credibility of the Church and its missionary activity. After finding that relationship between mission and credibility of the Church lies on the realization of its missionary nature and fulfilling its catholicity in the spatial dimension, author of this paper presents Dulles’ models of the Church as criteria for verifying implementation of the missionary activity of the Church. Institutional model of the Church, which has been dominating from Council of Trent to Vatican II, and herald model were deemed insufficient for fully realizing missions in spatial dimension of catholicity of the Church. The article presents also context of the crisis of missionary activity in the twentieth century and two groups of its causes (sociocultural and theological), and then points to the ecclesiology of Vaticanum II and another Dulles’ models of the Church: sacramental, communio and servant, as a response to the mission crisis, and the possibility of a wider implementation of the catholicity of the Church and its missionary nature, as well as the starting point for a new approach to religion and missionary activities. The article also points to the present in the conciliar documents motivation and new perspectives for missionary activity, and draws attention to the importance of inculturation, which in the context of the mission was deemed insufficient, and also to the possibility of conducting missionary activities in the perspective of understanding the missionary Churches as local Churches, the relationship between missions and social life, and a deeper understanding of conversion and interreligious dialogue.

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