A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF ACTUALIZING THE VISION OF LUMEN GENTIUM
Keywords:
LUMEN GENTIUMAbstract
The Second Vatican Council opened up many discussions
especially on the Church. The last 51 years, since the Council began,
have seen various developments in the self-understanding of the
Church. In the last century, in understanding the Church, emphases
have passed from understanding her as Societas Perfectas, to the
Mystical Body of Christ, and from the Church as ‘People of God’ to
the Church as ‘communion.’ Now the problem of actualising the
vision of the Second Vatican Council is well expressed by one of the
Fathers of the Council himself, Pope Benedict XVI, in 2005 as a
problem of the “correct interpretation” of the Council or its “proper
hermeneutics.”1 In front of the many discussions the Dogmatic
Constitution of the Second Vatican Council has opened up, in the
following paragraphs some possible perplexities in understanding the
Church are highlighted.
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