Teacher(s)
Famerée Joseph ;
Main themes
1. (on the basis of the texts of Vatican II) : the Church as mystery and historical institution; the holding together of the common mission of the baptized and of the various ministries; the uniqueness of the Church and the multiplicity of the Churches; the Church as sacrament of salvation for the world;
2. (ecumenism) : history and current situation of the main Christian denominations; history of the ecumenical movement and of the World Council of Churches; the counciliar decree Unitatis redintegratio; the bilateral dialogues of the Roman Catholic Church and the ecumenism in Belgium.
Aims
At the end of this course, the student will be able
- to deal, on the basis of the texts of Vatican II, particularly Lumen Gentium, with the main current questions in ecclesiology
- to give objective informations on the current questions in ecumenism
- to use the documents and the "work instruments" in ecclesiology, amongst them the texts of Vatican II
- to hold together ecclesiology, pastoral theology and canon law.
The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and
command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be
accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled
“Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Content
Unit A Ecclesiology
On the basis of the texts of Vatican II, particularly Lumen gentium and Unitatis redintegratio, the course will deal with some fundamental questions in ecclesiology today: the relationship between theological mystery and historical institution within Church's reality; the holding together of the common mission of the baptized, and of the ministries, the ordained ones especially; the ecumenical question of the multiplicity of Christian Churches, and the efforts to get over the divisions amongst them; the Church as sacrament of salvation for the world, and her relationship with non Christian religions in particular. One will also take care of holding together ecclesiology, pastoral theology and canon law.
Unit B Introduction in practical theology
This introduction in practical theology consists of three parts. The first part will set out before the students the challenges of the practical theology and its methods (1), its history (2) and the main texts of the Churches about it (3). Then we will study the contemporary situation in western countries through the main components that affect the Christian life : new connection between Churches and Society, "ultra-modernity", post-Christendom, faith and culture, pluralism, individualism, crisis of the education
(4). Some selected questions of practical theology will be afterwards shortly presented (5).
Unit C Canon law
After a short historical introduction, the canonical approach will be focused on the main issues addressed by the differents schools of theology of canon law, in three perspectives : (a) normative validity (b) normative legitimacy (c) normative effectivity of canon law within the Catholic Church. The conclusive part will discuss the specificity of canon law for the Church, the faithfull and the society today. The main methodological principles for a research in canon law will be introduced.
Other information
without object
