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Document Details : Title: Church Tribunals secundum and praeter legem Author(s): TORFS, Rik Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Date: winter 2001 Pages: 346-366 DOI: 10.2143/LS.26.4.921 Abstract : The glorious days of the societas perfecta are gone. It would hardly enter anyone’s head to describe the church in this way now. So does this mean that all we now have is the church as communio, as the People of God or the Body of Christ? When it comes to official speeches and theological reflections that often seems to be the case. However, and what I am saying is nothing new, societas perfecta thinking is not dead. Is this because structures are stronger than ideas? Perhaps. But that is not the only reason. For sometimes the opposite is true and ideas are stronger than structures, as the political expression of the ideas of the Enlightenment in a number of countries has proven. |
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