Teaching with Authority

What are the implications of Vatican II for the understanding and concrete exercise of doctrinal teaching authority in the Catholic Church? This book faithfully represents the teaching of Roman Catholicism on the church’s doctrinal authority while pointing to areas where there remains a gap between an ecclesiological vision of the church informed by Vatican II and the popular understanding and concrete exercise of that authority in the life of the church today.

The retrieval of such biblical images of the church as the people of God, body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit and the exploration of the theological concepts of mystery, communion and sacrament offer the possibility of re-formulating a theology of the magisterium which is faithful to the Roman Catholic doctrinal tradition. At the same time, if this theology is to be of value for ecumenical dialogue it must also be able to challenge contemporary ecclesiastical structures and generate new models for the concrete exercise of ecclesial authority in the church today.