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Title: The Catholicity of the Local Church
Subtitle: Louis Bouyer's Eucharistic Ecclesiology
Author(s): SALDANHA, Praveen Joy
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 46    Issue: 1   Date: 2023   
Pages: 52-69
DOI: 10.2143/LS.46.1.3292269

Abstract :
Eucharistic ecclesiology as developed in the twentieth century brought fresh air to the field of ecclesiology. Louis Bouyer (1913-2004), a prominent ressourcement theologian, explored the eucharistic dimension of the church while emphasizing the catholicity of the local church. Bouyer upheld the fullness of the local church and the communion of local churches at the regional and universal levels by underlining the relationship between the Eucharist and the church, as well as the place of the bishop in a local church. This contribution unfolds the salient and distinctive features of Bouyer’s eucharistic ecclesiology, especially his understanding of the catholicity of the local church from a eucharistic perspective. Moreover, it also sheds light upon how the Eucharist serves as a source of unity for all local churches to manifest the one church of God in Bouyer’s notion of the communion of local churches. The article concludes by drawing the ecclesiological implications of Bouyer’s eucharistic ecclesiology to our times, with a special focus on its relevance to ecumenical dialogue.

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