Professional Documents
Culture Documents
03
Ideas find expression in particular historical and cultural contexts. They are
developed in order to encapsulate, synthesise, critique, relativise and break
new ground, with reference to a particular intellectual focus or concern. An
idea, together with the network of concepts to which it is related, is a dialogue
with a different network with which it will overlap to some extent. Ultimately, if
it is to be fruitful, it will suggest a richer context that will provide greater
explanatory power coupled with a broader vision.
As with ideas, so with ecclesiology. The thinking of the 19th century Catholic
theologian Johann Adam Möhler (1796 – 1838) was a considered reaction to
a deeply rooted scholastic idea of the church that was formulated essentially
as a juridical societas standing over against a societas civilis. That the
dominant tone of ecclesiology for several centuries was apologetic and
defensive is not surprising, given the history of secular and civil
encroachments on the Church since the 13th century – not to mention the anti-
institutional and ‘spiritual’ yearnings of figures such as Occam, Wyclif and
Huss. Added to this, the intellectual climate of the 18th century (the time of
‘mankind’s coming of age’ according to the philosopher Immanuel Kant), with
its distrust of external authority considered as a source of knowledge and
enlightenment, helped only to consolidate a (reactionary) definition of the
Church that emphasised its sovereign and self-sufficient character. Möhler’s
response was shaped and tempered by the milieu of Romanticism, itself a
reaction against the arid intellectualism of the Enlightenment.
2 Möhler on the Holy Spirit and the Unity of the Church – Peter Dobbing – 11.10.03
The Church exists through a life directly and continually moved by the divine Spirit,
and is maintained and continued by the loving mutual exchange of believers. (93)
By way of a brief critique of Möhler’s position as set out in Unity I would like to
make the following observations:
I will conclude with further observations this time relating to Möhler’s more
mature position as set out in Symbolism.
5 Möhler on the Holy Spirit and the Unity of the Church – Peter Dobbing – 11.10.03
(1488 words)
.
6 Möhler on the Holy Spirit and the Unity of the Church – Peter Dobbing – 11.10.03