Edward Schillebeeckx (1914–2009)

Schillebeeckx argues that the charism of celibacy is only meaningful if it is arrived at between an individual and God and not imposed from the outside. Therefore, celibacy for the secular clergy makes no sense. Of course, at the end he defends the Pope's right to impose it, as all good Catholic theologians, even in those heady days of Vatican 2, must. I remember when I thought the Catholic Church would actually be swayed by reason and historical studies such as this one. Boy, was I naive.

This is a masterful review and creative interpretation of recent scholarship (especially biblical) on Jesus-become-the-Christ. Starting resolutely with the historical Jesus, Schillebeeckx traces how Jesus was understood by the early churches and ends with his salvific significance for the modern world.

"As long as there are still unredeemed people, who have not yet been liberated, genuine mystics, both in the East and in the West, refuse to possess perfect happiness."

Schillebeeckx here says far too many things inspired by knee-jerk individualism, but he has a good heart, and also says some intelligent, beautiful things, as in this quote.

This work focuses on the realization of our Encounter with God in the sacraments, and thus a greater devotion and more serious prayer life, seeking to know and to experience fully awakened that Encounter with God which is ours through Christ.

This work is so essential in the understanding and discussion of our Faith that Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI refers to it obliquely by employing its phraseology in his own landmark Apostolic Exhortation Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis, show more within a quote from his own earlier God Is Love: Deus Caritas Est: "The eucharistic mystery thus gives rise to a service of charity towards neighbor, which 'consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God' . . ." . show less