The Church: A Comprehensive Study in Ecclesiology

by Antonin Sertillanges

“I would not give up for anything,” François Mauriac once wrote, “the sacramental life dispensed to me by the Roman Church, which in truth is for me the source of life.” A. G. Sertillanges places his study of the Church’s sacramental life of his all-encompassing ecclesiological examination. This placement is by no means accidental. Like Mauriac, Sertillanges is conscious of the primacy of the sacraments in the initiation and sustainment of Christian life. Bounding the chapters on the sacraments with treatments of the Church’s nature and purpose, its defining characters, its attitude toward the world, particular in regard to culture and politics, and its organization, Sertillanges shows that the Church is coherent only in its wholeness, just “as God is coherent, for His life in the Trinity is reflected in the Holy Church.”Originally published in 1922, The Church remains a work of twofold importance: first, for its historical overview of ecclesiology prior to the Second Vatican Council; second, for its testimony to the “wondrous life” of the Church, “with its weaknesses and imperfections, the offspring of its existence in time, with its energies and untold beauties, visible or unseen.”

458 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Fr. Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P. was a French Catholic philosopher and spiritual writer.

Born Antonin-Dalmace, he took the name Antonin-Gilbert when he entered the Dominican order. In 1893 he founded the Revue Thomiste and later became professor of moral philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Henri Daniel-Rops wrote that it was rumored that President Raymond Poincaré asked Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, for a reply to Pope Benedict XV's peace proposals, and that Amette passed the request along to Sertillanges; in any event, Amette gave his imprimatur to this reply on 5 December 1917, five days before it was made public. In The Heroic Life, Sertillanges had defended Benedict's attitude toward peace, but in "The French Peace", Sertillanges said, "Most Holy Father, we cannot for an instant entertain your appeals for peace."

His scholarly work was concerned with the moral theory of Thomas Aquinas. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for two non-specialist works. The Intellectual Life is a practical guide for how to structure one's life so as to make progress as a scholar. What Jesus Saw from the Cross is a spiritual work that drew upon the time Sertillanges spent living in Jerusalem. Certain of Sertillanges' works are concerned with political theory, with French identity and the structure of the traditional French family.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magisterial description and defense of The Church.