The Church We Believe in: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic

Rating:
Summary: Excellent survey of Catholic ecclesiology
Review: Fr Sullivan provides a superb overview here of Catholic ecclesiology. He goes in to detail about how the Church of Christ is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, yet in still an imperfect/incomplete sense. This work is inundated with references to Magisterial documents and Ecumenical Councils, especially Vatican II. The Catholic doctrine of "Outside the Church there is no salvation" is well elucidated with an emphaisis on the culpability of the individual. Without denying this doctrine Fr Sullivan recommends the more current understanding of the Church as the "Universal Sacrament of Salvation".

Questions such as "Who belongs to the Church?", "How are Protestants related to the Catholic Church?" and issues regarding the Catholic Church's eucharistic communion with the Orthodox Churches of the east are answered in detail with copius citations to Church documents.

This work also offers a thorough explanation of why the Church that Jesus established soley "subsists in" the Catholic Church. A must for either any Catholic wanting to find out more about the Church's beliefs or inquiring non-Catholics.