Abstract
Two related themes running through Pope Francis’s theology form the focus of this paper: the importance of time over space in the context of the unfolding story of salvation as a journey through history, and the motherhood of the Church, personified in Mary. On the face of it, these two different theological metaphors are not easy to combine to form a coherent ecclesiology. The first develops the Second Vatican Council’s imagery of the Church as the pilgrim people of God, and the other draws on a more ancient metaphor of the Church as Mother. This paper explores each of these in turn, in order to suggest ways in which they can be creatively integrated to offer a revitalised ecclesiology for our times. However, this can only happen if the church takes a leap of faith to acknowledge the sacramental significance of the female body, which currently functions only as a marker of sacramental prohibition with regard to the exclusive masculinity of the priesthood.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 54-72 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | ECCLESIOLOGY |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Feb 2016 |
Keywords
- Pope Francis
- Evangelii Gaudium
- ecclesiology
- Second Vatican Council
- feminist theology
