Aother copy is at 282LUB

MBB-3

Pity the theologian, who seems to have two registers available to him or her: the impenetrably dry, and the unreadably kitsch. And what a pleasure to open, in fear and trembling, a long book of theology and discover someone who can write nice sentences, which are concise, and not cloying.

De Lubac presents his church as a particularly social one, and though he often seems verge on worship of the church, rather than God, he does try his best to make the church itself broader than it might otherwise seem. The Catholic Church, in this book at least, is not curial bureaucracy, but, as his subtitle has it, a common destiny for the human species.

So, despite some awkward discussions of other religions, de Lubac's church is a very welcoming one: social, embedded in history, aware of its own past but also of its present, universal to an almost Origenist point, and most importantly of all, dialectical: "Protestantism... generally occurs as a religion of antitheses.. either rites or morals, authority or liberty, faith or works, nature or grace, prayer or sacrifice, Bible or pope... but Catholicism does not accept these dichotomies" (315).
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AB-5

A very important book. Subtitle "Christ and the common destiny of Mankind" captures its value, even to current day Catholics. We have been influenced by an individualistic understanding of faith and salvation. ("Me and Jesus"). That isn't the traditional Catholic (or catholic) understanding and de Lubac goes back to scripture and the Church Fathers to demonstrate his point. Important for Catholics because our ecclesiology, sacraments and the centrality of the Eucharist all make much more sense in this context.