Dissertation Defense - Rose M. Beal
Final Examination of
Rose M. Beal
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Monday, April 27, 2009
2:00 p.m., Caldwell Room 333
Committee in Charge
Chair: Philip Rousseau, D.Phil.
Secretary: Rev. Dominic Serra, S.L.D.
Director: Rev. Msgr. Paul McPartlan, D.Phil.
Reader: Rev. Joseph Komonchak, Ph.D.
Reader: Rev. John Galvin, Dr.Theol.
Summary of Coursework
TRS 760 Theological Foundations
TRS 780A Introduction to the Study of Religion
TRS 770C Theology of Karl Rahner
TRS 867D Aquinas on the Life of Jesus
TRS 728K
Vatican II: History and Theology
TRS 764B Church as Communion
TRS 862A Contemporary Problems in Ecclesiology
TRS 862B Eucharist and Church
TRS 863B Magisterium and Infallibility
CL 803 Directed Research: Canon Law and the Church as Sacrament
TRS 741A Liturgy: Theological and Historical Perspectives
TRS 744 Eucharist: A Liturgical Theology
TRS 840 Liturgical Theology
TRS 500 Theological Latin
TRS 751A Teach/Learn: Religious Education and Catechetics
TRS 997 Doctoral Dissertation Guidance
Abstract
In Pursuit of a "Total Ecclesiology": Yves Congar's De Ecclesia, 1931-1954
Rose M. Beal
Director: Rev. Msgr. Paul McPartlan, D.Phil.
The French Dominican theologian Yves Congar (1904-1995) coined the term "total ecclesiology" in his ground-breaking outline for a theology of the laity, Jalons pour une théologie du laïcat (1953). "At bottom there can be only one sound and sufficient theology of laity," he wrote, "and that is a 'total ecclesiology.'" This study presents a systematic analysis of Congar's striving for a "total ecclesiology," that is, an ecclesiological synthesis that does justice to the mystery of the Church in all its dimensions, as exhibited both in his published work from the first half of his career and also in unpublished materials from the same period. The unpublished papers examined in this study include Congar's Thèse du Lectorat; lecture notes for ecclesiology courses given at the French Dominican House of Studies, Le Saulchoir, and in German prisoner-of-war camps; and the incomplete manuscript of the treatise De Ecclesia that he drafted from 1948 to 1954. These texts effectively chronicle the development of his intended treatise De Ecclesia over nearly twenty-five years.
This study seeks to explicate the meaning and role of a "total ecclesiology" in his early theology of the Church and suggests that the pursuit of a "total ecclesiology" is an appropriate interpretive lens for a comprehensive reading of his early ecclesiology. In presenting and analyzing for the first time the content of Congar's unpublished course materials and draft texts for his treatise De Ecclesia, this study demonstrates that the aspiration for ecclesiological synthesis that he expressed numerous times in his published writings from 1931 to 1954 was accompanied by substantial unpublished efforts to develop a comprehensive treatise that would accomplish that aim. It shows that Congar pursued an integral ecclesiological synthesis, not just as the product and goal of theological reflection on the Church, but also as the method for carrying out that reflection. This study concludes by reflecting on Congar's contribution to the Second Vatican Council and the fact that in his judgment the Council itself laid substantial foundations for a "total ecclesiology," which was perhaps the reason that Congar never completed his De Ecclesia project.
