Father Jaki’s dissertation, Les tendances nouvelles de l’ecclésiologie, translated here as New Trends in Ecclesiology, was published in Rome in 1957 and reprinted in 1963, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, in view of the conciliar theme dealt with in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, known by its incipit, Lumen gentium. About this book, the then Cardinal Ratzinger told to the Author: “Your Tendances has a place of honor in my library”.
    The book intends to explain the development and the accompanying strengths and weaknesses of the new trends in ecclesiology in the first half of the 20th century. In his Introduction, Fr. Jaki sets forth with balance and skill the precise problem that confronted Catholic ecclesiology. In chapter one, Fr. Jaki surveys the genesis of the new trends in ecclesiology as it arose in the religious romanticism of the 19th century. In chapter two, Fr. Jaki discusses the attempt of Catholic ecclesiologists to integrate the insights of non-Catholic ecclesiologies. In the third chapter, Fr. Jaki explores the ressourcement [return to the sources] movement within Catholicism and its impact on ecclesiology. In his fourth and final chapter, Fr. Jaki focuses on the new trends’ attempts to systematically analyze the Church as a mystery.    

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892539-25-0  •  iv + 294 pages  •  softcover