The monumental work of renowned twentieth-century Swiss ecclesiologist Charles Journet, The Church of the Word Incarnate, is among the most comprehensive and spiritually profound studies of the mystery of the Church. Presented here for the first time in English translation is Journet's complete five-volume "essay in speculative theology," in which he undertakes a Thomistic presentation of the Church in light of her four causes—efficient, material, formal, and final—corresponding to her four marks of apostolicity, catholicity, unity, and sanctity. In this second volume, Journet commences his examination of divine grace and charity as the Church's inherent formal cause, setting the stage for a consideration of the unity and catholicity of the Church in volume three. Foregrounded and developed here is his account of the Church's interior structure relative to Christ as her head, the Blessed Virgin Mary as her exemplar, and the Holy Spirit as her "Uncreated Soul." This theological grounding of ecclesiology in connection to the Incarnation, Mary, and the sending of the Spirit concludes with Journet's reflection on the various central definitions of the Church.
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CHARLES JOURNET (1891–1975) was a Swiss priest and theologian who taught at the major seminary in Fribourg from 1924 to 1970. He was the author of more than two dozen books and many articles on Catholic theology. Together with Jacques Maritain, he was the founder of the European journal Nova et Vetera. In 1965, Journet was named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in recognition of his work in ecclesiology.
Matthew K. Minerd is a Ruthenian Catholic, husband, and father, serving as Professor of Philosophy and Moral Theology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been published in Nova et Vetera, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, Études Maritainiennes, Downside Review, and Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He has also served as a translator or editor for volumes published by Emmaus Academic, Cluny Media, and The Catholic University of America Press.
What People Are Saying
"This volume simply constitutes one of the greatest works of Catholic ecclesiology. What, ontologically, is the Church as the mystical body of Christ? Who are its members, and how do they relate to the Most Holy Trinity, as the divine author of the Church? How is the Holy Spirit at work universally in the human race in view of the communion of the visible Church? In what sense should we call the Virgin Mary the mother of the Church? Journet treats such questions with a combination of speculative, metaphysical acumen and spiritual profundity that is unequaled. Challenges from the secular ethos are considered serenely and reasonably at every turn. This work stands out as a prime example of living Thomistic thought within the context of modern Catholic theology."
"In his preface to Volume I of L' Église du Verbe incarné, Servant of God Charles Cardinal Journet laments that works on the Church since St. Thomas's time have been chiefly directed to defending the Church's authority, with the unhappy result that the deeper study of the intimate constitution and essential mystery of the Church is separated from the treatment of the hierarchy and the powers of order and jurisdiction. The Swiss Cardinal undertook to write L' Église du Verbe incarné in light of the four causes of the Church in order to address this false division. Unfortunately, due to the delayed translation of subsequent volumes, English readers have had access only to the first volume, creating for us the very division Journet wished to avoid. The work you now hold in your hands is the first part of that deeper penetration into the mystery of the Church, focusing now on her exemplar causes in Christ, the Virgin, and the Holy Spirit."
"Matthew Minerd has performed a demanding task which deserves the gratitude of all students of the nature of Christ's Church. It takes a suite of skills to be able to produce theological translation of a high standard, and Minerd exemplifies them all in his rendering into English of the second volume of Charles Journet's L' Église du Verbe incarné. In particular, the translator needs to be able to inhabit with genuine intellectual sympathy the mindset of the Catholic theology of the first half of the twentieth century with its scholastic terminology and characteristic precision, so as to grasp the originality of those who thought and wrote within its exacting horizons. This is a challenging task for theologians who now practice their art some decades after the dominance of neo-scholasticism in Catholic thinking came to an end. Minerd is well able to convey the appeal of Journet's insights into the Body of Christ, Christ as Head of the Church, the perfection of his Church in his Mother Mary, and the manifold work of Christ in the mystery of salvation. The presence of more of Journet's oeuvre in English will open up his thought to a new generation of theologians eager for wisdom."
