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SUMMER 2000. TRINITY and EUCHARIST

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

In his introductory article, Bishop Peter Henrici suggests that these two themes of Trinity and Eucharist, which "at first may seem abstract and unrelated," will likely prove "decisive for the future of the Christian and Catholic faith."

Michael Figura elaborates the interrelation of the mysteries of the Church, the Eucharist, and the Trinity, showing how a trinitarian understanding of the Church (the Church as communio, image of the triune God) avoids the one-sidedness of an ecclesiology conceived wholly either on the basis of Christ ("christomonism") or on the basis of the Spirit ("pneumatomonism").

Situating his reflection within the context of the renewal of trinitarian theology generated by the Second Vatican Council, Javier Prades develops an interpretation of the relation between the economy of salvation and the intra-divine life (between the economic and the immanent Trinity), concluding with the suggestion that "the Eucharist is the sacramental gesture par excellence. It gathers into one all the elements of the permanence of Christ by means of the Holy Spirit as the source of human beings' communion with God and with one another. The Eucharist makes the Church, as the foretaste of the transformation of society as a whole, into a new humanity."

Marc Ouellet proposes to explore "the mysterious interrelationship between the Incarnation and the Eucharist," asking whether there "is in fact a genuine continuity between the trinitarian act of the cross and that of the Mass," or again, whether we can speak "of a eucharistic kenosis of the incarnate Word and even of a kenosis of the Trinity in the Eucharist."

Mario Antonelli discusses the relation between Trinity and Eucharist in the thought of Maurice Blondel, arguing that Blondel's vision of this relation "invites us to a metaphysics of charity that argues for the theological density of ethics and, at the same time, the ethical significance of the theological."

Jean-Pierre Batut insists that "it is not in spite of the Trinity that Christianity is a monotheistic faith, but because of it," and indicates the three elements implied in tri-unity that account for this statement.

In other articles, Peter Galadza surveys the current ecclesial-cultural situation in Ukraine as it bears upon reception of the Second Vatican Council. Glenn Olsen argues that a legitimate sense of "public philosophy "or "public reason" is realizable only insofar as liberal democracy becomes more self-conscious about its assumptions.

In Retrieving the Tradition, we publish an article by Robert F. Slesinski giving an overview of the life and thought of Pavel Florensky (1882-1937), along with a short but substantial selection from Florensky that summarizes a core principle of his ontology. Florensky was one of those identified by John Paul II in Fides et Ratio as exemplifying the "fruitful relationship between philosophy and the word of God" (no. 74). As indicated in a previous issue, Communio plans over time to carry reflections on and selections from each of the thinkers named by the pope.

Finally, in Kairos, John Meyer takes further an earlier discussion in Communio regarding the filioque using Athanasius's doctrine of the Spirit of Christ.


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