Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works – serie

World and Church deals with the conflict between religiosity and life in the world. Deliberately, Schillebeeckx turns around the order of the words in the idiom 'church and world', thereby stressing the embedding of faith and church life in particular contexts. In the first three chapters he reflects on this tension as he experienced it in burgeoning existentialism and debates between Catholics and Marxists in those turbulent years in Paris, where he was living immediately after World War II. It includes thoughts on pastoral work among the working class and the then popular pretres-ouvriers movement. He looks at some social problems and the mutual interrogation of believers and non-believers, also in light of the ideological compartmentalisation ('pillarization') evident in diverse spheres of European society: education, social work and health care. Schillebeeckx concludes by considering the responsibility of Catholic intellectuals and academics for the future of the world and the church, including the possible significance of a Catholic university

The Church with a Human Face: A New Expanded Theology of Ministry elaborates historically and theologically the main line of his argument. It further includes reactions and reflections on criticism he received. The work outlines the evolution of ecclesiastical office, starting with Jesus Christ and his messianic community, followed by a description of the practice and theology of ministry in the early Christian communities, and tracing different forms of ministry in the history of the Church. Of particular interest is the section on the ‘Complaints of the People’, which deals with the discontent of many connected with the position of women and married priests. As long as women are not allowed to participate fully in the decisions of the Church, Schillebeeckx argues, they will not be liberated, and their complaints will remain a fundamental charge that challenges the church.

As a result of the publication of Jesus. An Experiment in Christology (volume 6) and Christ. The Christian Experience in the Modern World (volume 7), Schillebeeckx was accused of denying the divinity of Jesus and the resurrection as objective reality. In this ‘interim report’ he responds to these criticisms. Schillebeeckx argues that the interpretation of his publications depends to a large extent on what the reader takes as a starting point. This book, therefore, is about presuppositions and methods of interpretation. Schillebeeckx begins by looking once again at the nature of revelation, at the ways in which religious faith is experienced and expressed in the modern world, and at sources of authority. He then discusses specific criticisms. Can he be called a neo-liberal? Does he devalue the church's tradition? Is his Christology inadequate? What does he really believe concerning the resurrection? Then, towards the end, in some poetically powerful passages, he turns once again to the nature of the Kingdom of God, creation and salvation.

The Understanding of Faith (1974) is certainly Schillebeeckx’s most incisive English publication on theological hermeneutics. It contains his principal ideas on this subject, in which he progressively evolved the hermeneutic thinking that he was to apply in due course in his famous Jesus books. The book centres on two issues: how should the Christian message of God’s kingdom be read in our day and age, and can a present-day interpretation of that message still be considered Christian? In short, what are the possibilities and limits of the understanding of faith in our modern age? Of course, hermeneutics as such was not new to Christian theology. Exegetes had been exploring interpretive processes for some time. Schillebeeckx’s innovation was to extend hermeneutic thinking to the possibilities and limits of interpreting the entire Christian tradition, including its definition in systematic theology. Inspired by the early Jürgen Habermas’s ‘new critical theory’, Schillebeeckx also expands criticism of ideology in various directions. This was to influence generations of theologians after him, right up the present day.

Christ. The Christian Experience in the Modern World focuses on the question of salvation for all people. Using seven 'anthropological constants’, Schillebeeckx innovatively shows the social and political relevance of faith. Inspired by liberation and feminist theologies, he puts strong emphasis on human experience and on the importance of examining church teaching in its historical context. This volume is a testimony of Schillebeeckx’ ground breaking attempt to rethink doctrine in the light of the research on the historical Jesus. Instead of starting with Christianity’s great creedal statements about Christ and the Trinity, he focuses on the subjective experience of the first generations of believers as expressed in the New Testament. This choice stirred considerable controversy and a Vatican investigation but inspired and still keeps to inspire readers in their personal approach to Christian faith.

This book was originally planned as the 'ecclesiological' third part of Schillebeeckx Jesus trilogy. It indeed concludes his thinking about the relevance of the living Jesus through history, but with a different approach than originally intended. By the end of the 20th century, many believers have left the unworldly 'super-naturalistic' preconciliar church behind. Those who leave the church, often leave a church that claims to be the direct mediator of God's will. However, the church is not a flawless gift from heaven. It is the vulnerable work of human beings which tries to find accurate ways to comply to the heart of the gospel message. In a time that is characterized by polarization in the church, Schillebeeckx does not forget to look at the unprecedented and authentic flourishing of the gospel. This book therefore contains the testimony of a theologian who tried, during the course of his life, to describe what God can mean for people today.

This is a new edition of the 1963 classic which gave Christological thought a new direction. As far back as his first major book Schillebeeckx propounded an anthropological approach to the sacraments. In Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God , he draws on theologically fruitful work by phenomenological anthropologists like Merleau-Ponty, Buytendijk and Binswanger. That makes Schillebeeckx's distinctive idiom and modern approach appealing even today. He rediscovers, as it were from within, the notions forged by scholastic theology, and thus restores to us a theology of the sacraments rooted in the biblical and patristic soil from which they first sprang. Schillebeeckx's speculative synthesis of this quest still has a fresh ring to it. He describes Christ as the primordial sacrament in a reflection on his public ministry, death and resurrection inspired by the universal human search for such a 'sacrament'. He concludes that the church's sacraments have to be an earthly extension of the liberation brought by Christ's story. Schillebeeckx ends by describing sacraments as grace made visible that gives crowning moments in Christian life a mystical quality. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.

God, the Future of Man focuses on religion and secularisation, viewed from various vantage points: secularisation and God-talk; secularisation and the church's liturgy; secularisation and the church's new self-understanding; and, finally, secularisation and the future of humankind on earth in light of the eschaton (church and social politics). These thought-provoking reflections are presented against the backdrop of Schillebeeckx's hermeneutic premises. In the concluding chapter his reflections on secularisation culminate in a God concept that can function fruitfully in a modern culture that assigns the future pride of place: God as the future of humankind. Written in a period pregnant with Cultural Revolution and religious change, the book foregrounds the pivotal issue of secularisation in a thought-provoking way. With feverish urgency he reflects on various forms of religiosity in the modern world. His contribution to the debate could just as well have been written today.

This is a unique selection of Edward Schillebeeckx' collection, translated into English here for the first time. This is a collection of essays from one of the most eminent Catholic theologians of the late 20th century. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.

In effect Revelation and Theology is Schillebeeckx’s general introduction to theology. Its fifteen chapters were originally published separately between 1954 and 1962, but the thematic collection offers a vivid picture of the theological renewal in the wake of World War II. Schillebeeckx’s erudition and broad scholarly orientation are clearly demonstrated in this volume. Throughout there are pointers to the (at that time new) ecumenical approach to Scripture and tradition. The problem concerning the function of the scholastic tradition is highlighted. Although Schillebeeckx draws extensively on Thomas Aquinas’s thinking, this early work already shows that he is not a (neo)Thomist in the narrow sense of the word. Unlike the single Dutch volume, the English version was published in two volumes. In the Collected works of Edward Schillebeeckx, however, here they are published together in the sequence that the author envisaged.

This is a new edition of the 1963 classic which gave Christological thought a new direction. As far back as his first major book Schillebeeckx propounded an anthropological approach to the sacraments. In Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God , he draws on theologically fruitful work by phenomenological anthropologists like Merleau-Ponty, Buytendijk and Binswanger. That makes Schillebeeckx's distinctive idiom and modern approach appealing even today. He rediscovers, as it were from within, the notions forged by scholastic theology, and thus restores to us a theology of the sacraments rooted in the biblical and patristic soil from which they first sprang. Schillebeeckx's speculative synthesis of this quest still has a fresh ring to it. He describes Christ as the primordial sacrament in a reflection on his public ministry, death and resurrection inspired by the universal human search for such a 'sacrament'. He concludes that the church's sacraments have to be an earthly extension of the liberation brought by Christ's story. Schillebeeckx ends by describing sacraments as grace made visible that gives crowning moments in Christian life a mystical quality. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.

In effect Revelation and Theology is Schillebeeckx’s general introduction to theology. Its fifteen chapters were originally published separately between 1954 and 1962, but the thematic collection offers a vivid picture of the theological renewal in the wake of World War II. Schillebeeckx’s erudition and broad scholarly orientation are clearly demonstrated in this volume. Throughout there are pointers to the (at that time new) ecumenical approach to Scripture and tradition. The problem concerning the function of the scholastic tradition is highlighted. Although Schillebeeckx draws extensively on Thomas Aquinas’s thinking, this early work already shows that he is not a (neo)Thomist in the narrow sense of the word. Unlike the single Dutch volume, the English version was published in two volumes. In the Collected works of Edward Schillebeeckx, however, here they are published together in the sequence that the author envisaged.

God, the Future of Man focuses on religion and secularisation, viewed from various vantage points: secularisation and God-talk; secularisation and the church's liturgy; secularisation and the church's new self-understanding; and, finally, secularisation and the future of humankind on earth in light of the eschaton (church and social politics). These thought-provoking reflections are presented against the backdrop of Schillebeeckx's hermeneutic premises. In the concluding chapter his reflections on secularisation culminate in a God concept that can function fruitfully in a modern culture that assigns the future pride of place: God as the future of humankind. Written in a period pregnant with Cultural Revolution and religious change, the book foregrounds the pivotal issue of secularisation in a thought-provoking way. With feverish urgency he reflects on various forms of religiosity in the modern world. His contribution to the debate could just as well have been written today.

World and Church deals with the conflict between religiosity and life in the world. Deliberately, Schillebeeckx turns around the order of the words in the idiom 'church and world', thereby stressing the embedding of faith and church life in particular contexts. In the first three chapters he reflects on this tension as he experienced it in burgeoning existentialism and debates between Catholics and Marxists in those turbulent years in Paris, where he was living immediately after World War II. It includes thoughts on pastoral work among the working class and the then popular pretres-ouvriers movement. He looks at some social problems and the mutual interrogation of believers and non-believers, also in light of the ideological compartmentalisation ('pillarization') evident in diverse spheres of European society: education, social work and health care. Schillebeeckx concludes by considering the responsibility of Catholic intellectuals and academics for the future of the world and the church, including the possible significance of a Catholic university

The Understanding of Faith (1974) is certainly Schillebeeckx’s most incisive English publication on theological hermeneutics. It contains his principal ideas on this subject, in which he progressively evolved the hermeneutic thinking that he was to apply in due course in his famous Jesus books. The book centres on two issues: how should the Christian message of God’s kingdom be read in our day and age, and can a present-day interpretation of that message still be considered Christian? In short, what are the possibilities and limits of the understanding of faith in our modern age? Of course, hermeneutics as such was not new to Christian theology. Exegetes had been exploring interpretive processes for some time. Schillebeeckx’s innovation was to extend hermeneutic thinking to the possibilities and limits of interpreting the entire Christian tradition, including its definition in systematic theology. Inspired by the early Jürgen Habermas’s ‘new critical theory’, Schillebeeckx also expands criticism of ideology in various directions. This was to influence generations of theologians after him, right up the present day.

The existence of the historical Jesus cannot be doubted. But who was Jesus of Nazareth? And who is he for us today? In this controversial work Schillebeeckx offers his ‘experiment’: an informative and sustained hermeneutical reflection on the story of Jesus. It became a bestseller, and would become the first volume of Schillebeeckx’ trilogy on Jesus Christ. He presents a Christology ‘from below’, rooted in the synoptic gospels, but especially in Mark and in the Q tradition. At the same time he is clearly interested in portraying ‘the historical Jesus’ as both Proclaimer and Proclaimed. In this major work Schillebeeckx tries to answer questions such as: Is the promise of salvation only to be found in Jesus Christ because he was a gift from God, as the Gospels tell us? What can we say about the inspiration of so many who do not attend church or adhere to any believe they find in Jesus Christ? Schillebeeckx takes us into his promising quest that leads to the ultimate question of what religious truth actually is.

Christ. The Christian Experience in the Modern World focuses on the question of salvation for all people. Using seven 'anthropological constants’, Schillebeeckx innovatively shows the social and political relevance of faith. Inspired by liberation and feminist theologies, he puts strong emphasis on human experience and on the importance of examining church teaching in its historical context. This volume is a testimony of Schillebeeckx’ ground breaking attempt to rethink doctrine in the light of the research on the historical Jesus. Instead of starting with Christianity’s great creedal statements about Christ and the Trinity, he focuses on the subjective experience of the first generations of believers as expressed in the New Testament. This choice stirred considerable controversy and a Vatican investigation but inspired and still keeps to inspire readers in their personal approach to Christian faith.

As a result of the publication of Jesus. An Experiment in Christology (volume 6) and Christ. The Christian Experience in the Modern World (volume 7), Schillebeeckx was accused of denying the divinity of Jesus and the resurrection as objective reality. In this ‘interim report’ he responds to these criticisms. Schillebeeckx argues that the interpretation of his publications depends to a large extent on what the reader takes as a starting point. This book, therefore, is about presuppositions and methods of interpretation. Schillebeeckx begins by looking once again at the nature of revelation, at the ways in which religious faith is experienced and expressed in the modern world, and at sources of authority. He then discusses specific criticisms. Can he be called a neo-liberal? Does he devalue the church's tradition? Is his Christology inadequate? What does he really believe concerning the resurrection? Then, towards the end, in some poetically powerful passages, he turns once again to the nature of the Kingdom of God, creation and salvation.

The Church with a Human Face: A New Expanded Theology of Ministry elaborates historically and theologically the main line of his argument. It further includes reactions and reflections on criticism he received. The work outlines the evolution of ecclesiastical office, starting with Jesus Christ and his messianic community, followed by a description of the practice and theology of ministry in the early Christian communities, and tracing different forms of ministry in the history of the Church. Of particular interest is the section on the ‘Complaints of the People’, which deals with the discontent of many connected with the position of women and married priests. As long as women are not allowed to participate fully in the decisions of the Church, Schillebeeckx argues, they will not be liberated, and their complaints will remain a fundamental charge that challenges the church.

This book was originally planned as the 'ecclesiological' third part of Schillebeeckx Jesus trilogy. It indeed concludes his thinking about the relevance of the living Jesus through history, but with a different approach than originally intended. By the end of the 20th century, many believers have left the unworldly 'super-naturalistic' preconciliar church behind. Those who leave the church, often leave a church that claims to be the direct mediator of God's will. However, the church is not a flawless gift from heaven. It is the vulnerable work of human beings which tries to find accurate ways to comply to the heart of the gospel message. In a time that is characterized by polarization in the church, Schillebeeckx does not forget to look at the unprecedented and authentic flourishing of the gospel. This book therefore contains the testimony of a theologian who tried, during the course of his life, to describe what God can mean for people today.