The present volume comprises a revised version of Balthasar’s 1948 essay “Der Laie und der Ordensstand” (The Laity and the Religious State) along with a number of shorter texts on the laity and lay consecration. It thus provides a helpful introduction to one of his central concerns: the theology of the consecrated life, particularly in the context of the secular institutes. It is by living out the evangelical counsels at the heart of the world, Balthasar believed, that these institutes embody in paradigmatic form both the mission of the laity and the theologically central lay dimension of the Church as a whole.
About This Book
A Life Held in Readiness for God: On the Meaning of the Consecrated Life Today
1. “He Called to Himself Those Whom He wanted”
2. The Christological Foundation
3. The Life of the Counsels
4. Distinguishing the Forms of Life
PART ONE: THE LAYMAN AND THE LIFE OF THE COUNSELS
Prefatory Note
Introduction
1. The Limitations of Catholic Action
2. The Lesson of History
3. The Demands of the Present Day
4. Concrete Forms
5. Women and the State of the Counsels
6. Conclusion
PART TWO: THE EVANGELICAL
COUNSELS IN TODAY’S WORLD
I. The Essence and Significance of Secular Institutes
1. The Fundamental Idea
2. The Layman in Today’s Church
3. The Analogy of the State of the Counsels
4. Significance for a Theology of the Church
5. The Layman in the State of the Counsels and the Layman in the Married State
II. On the Theology of the State of the Counsels
1. The Scope of Today’s Theological Evaluation
2. The Gospel and the Counsels
a. Theology of the States of Life
b. On the Concept of “Counsel”
c. The Multiplicity of the Counsels
d. The Individual Counsels
e. Vows and Office: The Immeasurable Mystery of the Church
3. The Counsels and Human Thinking
4. The Situation Today
III. The Evangelical Counsels in Today’s World?
1. The Urgency of the Question
2. Biblical Foundations
3. A Few Consequences
4. Secular Institutes
IV. Lay Movements in the Church
1. The Situation of the Catholic Lay Movements Today
a. On the Origins of Lay Movements in the Church
b. Lay Movements and the Ecclesial “States of Life”
c. Reasons for the Development of Lay Movements Today
d. The Specific Mission of the Laity as Mediators Between Church and World
2. Aspects of the Spirituality of Lay Movements
a. Many Missions Within the One Faith
b. Challenges Facing Lay Movements’ Spiritualities
c. The Movement and the Individual
d. The Movement and the Church
e. The Movement and the World
f. Reciprocal Relationships Among Movements
First Publication References
Other Works on the Same Theme