Conference paper
Biblical and Theological Basis of Dialogue. Is the Bible a book and the Church a community of dialogue?
Ivan Šporčić
orcid.org/0000-0003-0426-994X
; Theology of Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Summarv
It is through the prism of the dialogue, which that has its source and its end in the dialogical God of the three Divine persons, that the postcouncil theologv tries to present the Church and its inner dialogical structure as an exemplary model of each dialogue in the world. The author, therefore, at the very beginning of the article, argues this - as he calls it - a classical biblical and theological concept of the Bible as the book of the dialogue and the Church as a community that lives its intemal relationships on the basis of the revealed truths.
But, having become convinced that the term "dialogue" does not bear the same meaning in the Church as in the vvorld in which the Church lives and acts, the author wonders how plausible can be the discourse on the Bible as the book of the dialog and on the Church as an exemplary model of every other dialog? The Church has used this term throughout many centuries exclusively as an apologetic literarv form or as a means of evangelism.
Having analysed the word didlogos in the books of the New Testament and the fundamental documents of the Church teachings, from the Pope Paul VI Encvclical Ecclesiam suam to the encvclicals, apostolic letters and speeches of the Pope John Paul II, the author has concluded that the "dialogue" as a communication of two equal subjects that discuss from different positions and come to balanced standpoints, to a higher level of betterment and of truth, has no biblical or theological basis and that that it is not welcome in the church discussions ad intra, while efforts are made to use it ad extra, in an adapted way, as a means of evangelisation. In spite of ali this, the author believes that nowadays there is no alternative to a genuine dialogue of human partners in the Church and that it is only way to activate the feeling of co-responsibility of ali the members of the Church for the destiny of the community to which they belong and for the world in which they live.
Keywords
dialogue; dialogsszomai-dialogismos; Church; Bible; theology; Ecclesiam suam; Second Vatican Council; Dominus Iesus; Catechism of Catholic Church
Hrčak ID:
77282
URI
Publication date:
14.8.2003.
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