That All May Be One: Hierarchy and Participation in the Church - Softcover

Nichols, Terence L

9780814658574: That All May Be One: Hierarchy and Participation in the Church

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814658571 ISBN 13: 9780814658574

Publisher: Michael Glazier Books, 1997

Must hierarchy mean dominance, patriarchy, and oppression? Should it be eliminated? Or is there an alternative view of hierarchy? These questions split the Church during the Reformation and are polarizing it today. This book presents a perspective on hierarchy drawn from church history, the natural sciences, and contemporary social models. It argues that the role of hierarchy in the Church is to preserve apostolic teaching and to foster integration, but that domination deforms hierarchy, which should be participatory, integrative, ecumenical, and universal. It concludes that a balanced understanding of hierarchy is critical for ecumenical progress, for the integrity of Roman Catholicism, and for the catholicity of the whole Christian Church.

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From the Inside Flap:

Must hierarchy mean dominance, patriarchy, and oppression? Or is there an alternative view of hierarchy? These questions split the Church during the Reformation and still polarize it today. In addressing these questions, Nichols, in That All May Be One, maintains that hierarchy has become almost a pejorative term. Both its attackers and defenders tend to identify it with centralized authoritarian control, which raises a problem for those Churches with a hierarchal episcopate?especially the Roman Catholic Church, which is, according to Vatican II (Lumen gentium), hierarchial. Nichols contends that this problem has torn the Catholic Church in two. The only thing the two sides agree on is that hierarchy is domination: the right wants to enforce it, the left, to reject it. But to Nichols the notion of hierarchy as domination is distorted, because hierarchy's role is to preserve apostolic teaching and the unity of the Church, and to foster participation and integration. In That All May Be One Nichols maintains that the ecclesial structure of the Church should reflect both the invisible (ontological) aspects and visible (institutional) aspects of hierarchy. Ontologically, Christianity is a hierarchy of participation and integration. The believer's relation to God, through Christ and the Spirit, is one of participation in and integration into the divine life. Presenting a perspective on hierarchy drawn from the natural sciences, Church history, and contemporary social models, Nichols suggests that this model of ecclesial hierarchy?hierarchy that does not dominate, but draws people into participation in the life of the Christ and the Spirit?should be recovered. Nichols details the notion of participatory hierarchy, grounding it in Scripture and in Christian tradition. He concludes with the position that a balanced understanding of hierarchy is critical for the integrity of Roman Catholicism, for the catholicity of the whole Christian Church, and for ecumenical progress. Written from an ecumenical perspective, That All May Be One is addressed to those who are concerned about hierarchy in the Roman Catholic Church, non-Catholics who are concerned about hierarchy in their own Churches, and those concerned about the ecumenical movement. Readers?parish educators, priests, theologians, seminarians, Catholic college students, and educated laity?will appreciate Nichols' clear account of the timely topic of hierarchy. Chapters are ?Introduction,? ?Hierarchy in the Hebrew Scriptures,? ?Hierarchy in the New Testament,? ?The Apostles and Their Successors,? ?The Early Church,? ?Hierarchy and Participation in the Middle Ages,? ?The Reformation,? ?Catholic Reformation and the Post-Tridentine Church,? ?Vatican I and Vatican II,? ?Ontological Hierarchy: The Mystical Body of Christ,? ?The Church as a Society,? and ?The Church as Communion: That All May Be One.? Also includes a bibliography.?An important contribution.? Richard R. Gaillardetz University of St. Thomas Houston, Texas?This is a terribly important book which shows a way beyond the current crisis of authority in the Church. Not just another attack on?or defense of?Church hierarchy, Nichols presents a model of participatory hierarchy which is true to the deepest theological insights of the tradition, as well as to the lives of ordinary Christians. Nichols' argument is backed by impressive scholarship covering twenty centuries of Church thinking and practice. This profoundly ecclesial work can contribute to true communion in the Church, and it should be read by those both within and without the hierarchy.? William T. Cavanaugh University of St. Thomas?This is the most illuminating historical-critical analysis of the nature and structure of the Church that I have seen for many years.? W. Norris Clarke, S.J. Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Fordham University?Nichols offers us a hard-hitting argument for a participatory hierarchy in the Church as an alternative to both a monarchical command hierarchy and a democratic egalitarianism.? Susan Wood School of Theology St. John's University Collegeville, Minnesota

About the Author:

Terence L. Nichols is an assistant professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.

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