Rekindling the Christic Imagination: Theological Meditations for the New Evangelization

The Second Vatican Council marked the beginning of the New Evangelization. It sought to communicate the Gospel's perennial newness to the contemporary world in a spirit of joy and hope. Yet, despite the exhortations of Paul VI and John Paul II, a number of factors, both ecclesial and cultural, deflected the church's evangelical energies. The council's radiant Christocentric vision faded in an increasingly polarized church. The present work seeks to recover and probe the council's comprehensive Christocentric vision and its evangelical imperative. It maintains that Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his body, the church, and that the Eucharist effects the ongoing intimate communion between Head and members. It is this life-giving communion that the church desires to share with the wider world as the world's truth and salvation. The book draws on the writings of Pope Benedict and the witness of Pope Francis to promote a rekindling of the Christic imagination that helps the merely notional become vivid and real through the lure of beauty.