The Church. "A sign raised up among the nations"

The work of the late Professor Santiago Madrigal, SJ, The Church. "Sign raised up among the nations", published by Editorial Sígueme and in collaboration with the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (2024, ISBN: 978-84-301-2224-0).

This new unpublished work by Professor Madrigal, who died in 2023, will be presented at our University on Tuesday, 12 November 2024 in the Alberto Aguilera building, 23, at 19:00.

The following is a summary of the new book:

The Church is called to be the intrinsic medium of the salvific event of Christ for mankind in every time and place. But two questions have called into question this apparently simple affirmation: is the Church really necessary; is the believer's personal and immediate relationship with God not enough?

Both questions, which express the individual-institution dialectic and the difficult relationship between the personal experience of God and the experience of a collective faith, call for answers that underpin the credibility of the Church. Moreover, they invite us to go deeper into the essential elements that form the core of ecclesiology.

The six lessons on ecclesiological foundations that make up this work have as their underlying logic the realisation of an ecclesiology in the making. This theological science is a "situated" knowledge that seeks to describe the essential reality of the Church, its nature and mission, its origin and structures, as well as its concrete and historical being. 

The approach to the mystery of the Church is carried out here as an essay in ecclesiogenesis, reconstructing the theological object "Church" in a historical and hermeneutical key, without forgetting the decisive importance of Vatican II - "the Council of the Church on the Church" - and the conviction that a dynamic reality will always remain open.

The book can now be purchased by clicking here.

Santiago Madrigal Terrazas was PhD in Theology (Madrid, 1994), Licentiate in Theology (Frankfurt, Germany, 1991) and Licentiate in Philosophy (Madrid, 1984), Professor of Ecclesiology and Ecumenical Theology at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Canon Law between 2002 and 2009. He was also a Consultant Member of the Commission for Interconfessional Relations of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and a Full Member of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain.

His latest publications include Non Omnis Moriar (Comillas 2023), Comentario teológico a los documentos del Concilio Vaticano II, vol. I ( BAC 2023) and De pirámides y poliedros. Señas de identidad del pontificado de Francisco (SalTerrae 2020).

All the latest news from the Faculty of Theology can be found on the website, in the monthly newsletter and on the social network X (formerly Twitter).