Dialogical Catholicity of the Church
Dialogical Catholicity of the Church

Summary/Abstract: The Church’s catholicity is confessed by almost all Churches in the Christian Creed. However, as a result of historical divisions within Christianity, this attribute of the Church has often adopted confessional and narrow interpretations. The ecumenical activities are aimed at restoring the Catholic fullness and, therefore, the understanding of catholicity or the Catholic fullness of the Church must be closely related to the understanding of ecumenism. The article attempts to justify the thesis that catholicity of the Church, by its nature, has a dialogical dimension. It results from the constant tension between the multiplicity of ecclesial identities and the unity of the one people of God as an objective of ecumenism. The ecumenical way, however, does not omit the specificity of the confessional identity, but it demands recognition of the legitimate multiplicity and diversity of forms of expressing one Christian faith. According to the assumptions of the ecumenical hermeneutics, various ecclesial traditions should be interpreted in the light of what unites and not what divides, and the elements belonging to the ecumenically-, that is dialogically-oriented catholicity, should be noticed and recognised.

• Details
• Contents