Science et Esprit, XLV/1 (1993)

61-78

THE GENESIS OF T H E T R I N I T A R I A N
E C C L E S I O L O G Y OF V A T I C A N II
Peter

DRILLING

As the years pass since the close of the Second Vatican Council on Dec.
7,1965, it is not difficult simply to remember the Council as a past event,
and to forget that its teachings, in so many respects, brought the Roman
Catholic Church, at any rate as a corporate entity, to new levels of
development that deserve more than passing acknowledgment. Such is
the case with the Council's turn toward a trinitarian orientation in
ecclesiology, a turn which the church has yet to appropriate fully and
adequately express in its life.
From a view of the church as the perfectly ordered society that is
the Mystical Body of Christ, which was the position of the first draft of
"de Ecclesia," an important shift took place, the entire conciliar assembly explicitly decided to ground the church's ecclesiology on the
divine Trinity as the source, the goal, and the constant enabler of all
ecclesial reality.1
In the present essay I will discuss, first, how the ancient doctrine of
the Trinity came to be incorporated into the teaching of Vatican II in
such a way that the move was initiated that has brought Catholic
ecclesiological doctrine ex professo from a more exclusively christological to a trinitarian foundation.2 Then, I will treat something of the
context in Europe that influenced this shift. In the process of discussing
this influence, I will expand upon the specific place among these
influences of Grard Philips, who became the chief redactor of Lumen

1 Indicating the impact of this shift within the documents of the Council, Spanish
theologian Nereo Silanes has noted three extended references to the Trinity in Vatican
II {Lumen Gentium 2-4, Ad Gentes 2-4, Dei Verbum 2-4) as well as 50 further shorter
references See La Iglesia de la Trinidad La Santsima Trinidad en el Vaticano II
(Salamanca Ediciones Secretariado Trinitario, 1981), 101
2 Pope Pius XII's encyclical, Mystici Corporis, of June 29, 1943, had already
moved Catholic ecclesiology officially from an exclusively juridical teaching of the
perfect society to a chnstological starting point While, in fact, a trinitarian perspective
eluded the development of official Roman Catholic ecclesiology in the 19th and 20th
centuries, there is ample evidence that it is a part of the longer western tradition See
Yves M -J CONGAR, "Pneumatologie ou 'Chnstomonisme' dans la tradition latine" in
Ecclesia a Spiritu Sancto edocta Mlanges thologiques, Hommage Mgr Grard
Philips (Gembloux Duculot, 1970) See also, Andr-Marie CHARUE, "Le Saint-Esprit
dans Lumen Gentium" in ibid , 20

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DRILLING

Gentium 3 Third, I will make some remarks on where a trinitarian

ecclesiology has been leading the church and what implications are
particularly important at the present time for church life and for
theology.
Drafting a document "de Ecclesia" at Vatican II
On Oct. 27, 1960, a subcommission of the Theological Preparatory
Commission was established to prepare a schema on the doctrine of the
church to be discussed by the worldwide episcopate when it would
gather as the Second Vatican Council. The document which eventually
included eleven chapters was presented to the Council on 23 Nov. 1962
under the title Aeternus Unigeniti Pater.* This document's foundation
was the theology of church of Mystici Corporis, that is, it united the
church juridically as a perfect society with the church theologically as
the Mystical Body of Christ and declared the Roman Catholic church to
be this perfect society, the Mystical Body of Christ. 5
Among a variety of criticisms levelled against the several schemata
drafted by the preparatory commission for consideration of the Council,
two are particularly noteworthy with regard to our theme. One criticism
was directed first at the text on the liturgy. It was delivered in the
Council hall by Archbishop Franois Marty of Reims on 22 Oct. 1962.
From two monks associated with the ecumenically active monastery of
Chevetogne in Belgium, Emmanuel Lanne and Olivier Rousseau, Archbishop Marty had received complaints about the lack of reference to the
pneumatological dimension of the liturgy in the schema presented for
discussion at the Council. When he took the floor, Archbishop Marty
registered the complaint. 6
A second theme deals with the church as a mystery. Cardinal
Achilles Linart of Lille spoke the first intervention on Aeternus Uni3 I acknowledge with profound gratitude the administration of the Bibhotheek
van de Faculten der Godgeleerheid of the Catholic University of Louvain for allowing
me to have access to the archives of the library to research the personal papers of Grard
Philips In particular, I am grateful to Prof M Lambengts not only for his generous
and competent assistance, but also for his delightful disposition
4 Important dates indicating the progress of Lumen gentium from the preparatory
work to ratification of the Constitution are recorded in Giuseppe ALBERIGO & Franca
MAGISTRETTI, Constitutwnis Dogmaticae "Lumen Gentium" Synopsis Histrica
(Bologna Istituto per le Scienze Religiose, 1975), Appendix A
5 Antonio Acerbi has done a thorough study of the unfolding of ecclesiological
themes through their various stages in the progression of Vatican II See Due ecclesiologie ecclesiologia giuridica ed ecclesiologia di communwne nella "Lumen gentium"
(Bologna Ed Dehoniane, 1975) See also Yves CONGAR, "Implicazioni chnstologiche
e pneumatologiche dell' ecclesiologia del Vatican II," Cristianesimo nella Storia 2
(1981), esp 98, 198-110 This essay is also published in idem , Le Concile de Vatican
//(Pans Beauchesne, 1984)
6 For a discussion of these historical data, see Andr-Mane CHARUE, bishop of
Namur and vice-president of the doctrinal commission which directed the composition
of Lumen Gentium, op cit, 23

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geniti Pater on 1 Dec. 1962. He noted that any ecclesiology that does
not sufficiently take into account how the church is a mystery runs the
risk of becoming too juridical, which is exactly the case with the
prepared document. For, while it acknowledges the mystical dimension
of the church, it does not ground its ecclesiology therein and thus ends
with an excessively juridical view of the church.7
As the first session of the Council drew to a close it became clear
that the sentiment of the Council was to rewrite the text on the church.
A candidate to form the basis of a new text was a draft that had been
prepared in Oct. 1962 by Grard Philips, a theologian of the University
of Louvain. Already a member of the writing team that made up the
subcommission "de Ecclesia," Philips was well aware of the theological
orientation of the members of the Preparatory Theological Commission.
In addition, as a Belgian professor at Louvain, Philips was in close
contact with the influential Belgian hierarchy and other Louvain theologians, who lodged at the Belgian College during the Council. Along
with Marty, Linart, and hundreds of other bishops and theologians, the
Belgians' theological orientation differed from the Roman theology that
was preponderant on the preparatory commission. Knowing firsthand
the theological orientations of both sides, Philips was in a particularly
good position to prepare a document that could incorporate the best of
Aeternus Unigeniti Pater and yet provide the new orientation that was
sought.
In Nov. 1962, at a meeting with Bishop Marcus McGrath of Panama
City, Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, Otto Semmelroth, Joseph Lecuyer, and
Carlo Colombo, Philips received advice on the revision of his proposed
schema.8 It was the revised schema that appeared among the Council
fathers on 22 Nov. 1962, one day before the distribution of the official
schema Aeternus Unigeniti Pater. The Philips schema had already given
as a title to the first chapter, "De mysterio Ecclesiae." So, too, did
schemata subsequently submitted by a group of German-speaking bishops and theologians in Dec. 1962, by the bishops of Chile in Jan. 1963,
by a group of Italian bishops in the same month, and likewise by bishops
and theologians of France.9
When a new subcommission was established in Feb. 1963 to write
a revised draft on the church, Prof. Philips was chosen to be the chief
redactor. The subcommission was also charged to use the Philips'
schema of Nov. 1962 as its base, but to retain as much of the original
draft of the Preparatory Commission as possible.
The new draft of the opening chapter of what was to become Lumen
Gentium begins with an introduction in which the church is named a
sacrament, translating into Latin the Greek word, musterion: "Since the
church recognizes that in Christ it is the sacrament of the intimate union
of all humanity and of the union of humanity with God..." The first
chapter follows, entitled "On the mystery of the church."
7

Ibid,2\

A C E R B I , op

A L B E R I G O and

at,

171,

53

MAGISTRETTI, op

at,

381,

393,

418,

425

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DRILLING

During discussion of the draft a need was voiced to clarify how the
church is a sacrament. A resolution was reached in early March. The
church was declared to be a sacrament in the sense of a sign telling the
world of salvation in Christ Jesus and in the sense of an instrument by
which salvation continues to be communicated to the world.10
Articles followed on the eternal Father as the origin of the divine
will to offer universal salvation and on the Son as the one sent to unify
humanity and bring about a new creation. In their main lines these two
articles on the Father and the Son were transposed from the original
draft.
Finally, Philips composed an entirely new article on the work of the
Holy Spirit as the animator of the church and of the faithful (Lumen
Gentium's article 4). 1 * The article ends with a summary statement from
Cyprian's treatise on the Lord's Prayer which teaches that the church is
a united people, made so according to the unity of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.12
Thus, by early March 1963, the four introductory articles of Lumen
Gentium were substantially in place. In biblical and patristic ter
minology and imagery the church is proclaimed to be essentially a divine
reality, a sacrament of divine action on behalf of humanity. The divine
Trinity reaches out into human history to share its saving love with all
humankind. The divine Persons act together but not indiscriminately.
Rather, each person of the Trinity exercises a particular function to
gather up people of every place and time into the communion of the
church wherein all God's good gifts are shared.
Once in place as the origin and goal of the church's existence, in
the significant opening articles of the central dogmatic constitution on
the church, the Council went on to incorporate the ecclesiology of
trinitarian communion explicitly and implicitly throughout several con
ciliar documents. In chapters I and II of Lumen Gentium alone telling
references appear in article 7 on the church as Christ's mystical body,
in article 8 on the new People of God as brought together into commun
ion by the Spirit of the Son, and in article 17 which brings the first two
chapters to their conclusion by stating that the church prays and works
10 Mimeographed minutes of the meeting on 5 March 1963 of the theological
commission, which are among Philips' papers, indicate that Roman theologian Pietro
Parente offered the clarification on the meaning of the church as sacrament
11 Bishop CHARUE, op at, reports that it was A Pngnon, rector of the Belgian
College in Rome, who actually suggested the addition of a pneumatological article,
which Philips composed in Feb 1963, using as his inspiration the draft "de Ecclesia"
prepared by the Chilean bishops (23-24) For the Chilean text, see ALBERIGO-MAGIS
TRETTI, op

at,

395

12 It is not an overstatement on the part of a close collaborator of G Philips at

the Council when he writes "The new chapter one, on the mystery of the Church, began
with an enlargement which I do not hesitate to qualify as essential," namely, that the
mystery of the church is that it is "Ecclesia de Trinitate " See Charles Moeller, "Le
Ferment des Ides dans l'laboration de la Constitution" in Guilherme BARAUNA,
O FM ,ed , L'glise de Vatican II, Vol II (Pans Cerf, 1966, Unam Sanctam 51b), 102

TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

65

"so that the entire world might move into the People of God, the Body
of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and thus all honor and glory
might redound in Christ, the Head of everyone, to the Author and Father
of all things." Lumen Gentium1 s chapter VII expands upon this eschatological meaning of the church which comes from and exists by means
of the activity of the divine Trinity. The church is already a trinitarian
communion but now in a pilgrim state, as worship is given to the Father,
through Christ, in the Spirit. Still awaited and ardently desired is the
final consummation in glory.
Understanding the text by understanding the context
How was so remarkable a shift from the view that a christological
ecclesiology of the mystical body is the foundation of all further theology of the church to one that grounds Roman Catholic ecclesiology
in the trinitarian life of God able to be incorporated into the Second
Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the church so soon into the
Council's deliberations? Simply put, a sympathetic receptivity to trinitarian ecclesiology on the part of Latin Rite theologians in northern
Europe that had been in the air for decades came to focus in the schema
"de Ecclesia" by the confluence of a happy set of circumstances. 13
Since the second decade of the twentieth century, a movement
eventually named ressourcement, "return to the sources," gained momentum. Beginning with French Jesuits associated with the theologate
at Lyons-Fourvire and Dominicans at the theologate of Saulchoir, the
movement was a powerful, scholarly effort on the part of Catholic
theology to return to a study of the biblical and patristic texts of the first
Christian centuries. Indirectly inspired by Pope Leo XIII's call in 1879
to retrieve the authentic doctrine of Thomas Aquinas by means of
historical study of the texts and their contexts, scholars started publishing critical editions of the church's founding documents. Study after
study of patristic and medieval texts appeared. It was especially the
critical editions of patristic texts that welcomed western Catholic the13 Olivier Rousseau, O S , discusses the church as mystery among several
ecclesiological themes that were gaining momentum as the 20th century progressed
toward Vatican II in "La Constitution 'Lumen Gentium' dans le cadre des mouvements
rnovateurs de thologie et de pastorale des dernires dcades" in BARANA, op at,
39-40 In a footnote Rousseau makes reference to some background of the trinitarian
dimension of ecclesiology in the theology of Johann Adam Mohler (39, 4) See, e g ,
his 1825 volume Einheit in der Kirche, ed Josef Geiselmann (Darmstadt Wissen
schaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1957), 475 ( that my Mohler reference is not iden
tical to Rousseau' s ) In a separate context, H Schauf, who had served on the Theological
Commission of Vatican II, evokes the memory of the trinitarian ecclesiology of another
nineteenth-century theologian, CI SCHRADER in "Die Kirche in ihrem Bezug zum
Dreifltigen Gott in der Theologie des Konzilstheologen Cl Schrader" in Ecclesia a
Spiritu Sane to Edocta, op at Returning to the twentieth century there is the remarkable article by Yves M -J Congar, "Ecclesia de Irinitate" Irenikon 14 (1937), 131-146

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ology in a fresh way to make its own the rich thought of the first
Christian centuries, including the writings of eastern authors
Among the scholars of ressourcement were the translators and
commentators of the patristic studies that appeared under the direction
of Jean Danilou, S.J., in the series Sources chrtiennes These studies,
first appearing in 1942 with the publication of a French translation of
The Life of Moses of Gregory of Nyssa, manifest how early church
authors address a broad array of topics related to Christian living,
worship, and thought in ways quite different from the late scholastic,
post-Tridentine thought patterns and customs of nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century Catholicism.
At the same time, Yves Congar and his collaborators at Unam
Sanctam began to publish historical and theological studies of the
church in its many phases and dimensions. 14 These studies multiplied
at a pace similar to the patristic studies of the series Sources chrtiennes
Congar's more historical approach provided a complementary set of
positive studies to take their place alongside the more systematic but
non-scholastic ecclesiologies of German-speaking theologians such as
Johann Adam Mhler (19th century), Karl Adam and Hans Urs Von
Balthasar, and of French-speaking theologians such as Henri de Lubac
and Charles Journet. Indeed, de Lubac and Congar became associates
early on. 15
Biblical studies as well began to flourish at this time in Catholic
circles, particularly because of the support given by Pope Pius XII in his
1943 encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu. One center for historical study
of the Scriptures that came to be influential was the cole Biblique de
Jerusalem. Also influential was the Catholic University of Louvain. This
is likely due to the persistence of Louvain scholars to pursue a historical
approach to biblical scholarship at a time when the rest of the Catholic
world languished in a post-Modernist malaise. 16 Gradually, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, under the direction of Augustin Bea, also adopted
more confidently a historical approach to biblical studies so that in 1964,

14 The first volume of Unam Sanctam is by Congar himself, Chrtiens Dsunis

Principes d'un "Oecumnisme" Catholique, published in 1937 (Pans Cerf)
15 Roger AUBERT provides a review of biblical, liturgical and patristic ressourcement up to the middle of the century in La Thologie Catholique au milieu du XXe Sicle
(Tournai Castermann, 1954) Henri de LUBAC provides a brief but fascinating account
of the concern of certain Roman theologians and ecclesiastical authorities regarding "la
nouvelle thologie" in Mmoire sur l'Occasion de mes crits (Namur Culture et vrit,
1989), 35-36
16 On the renewal of biblical studies by Catholic scholars see John S KSELMAN,
S S and R D WITERUP, S S , "Modern New Testament Criticism," 70 71-77 (paying
special attention to 74 on biblical studies at the University of Louvain), Alexa SUELZER,
S and John S KSELMAN, S S , "Modern Old Testament Criticism," 69 59-61, and
Raymond E BROWN, S S and Thomas Aquinas COLLINS, , "Church Pronounce
ments" 72 6-8, all in Raymond E BROWN, S S , Joseph A FITZMYER, S J , and Roland
E MURPHY, O Carm , eds , The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs,
J Prentice Hall, 1990)

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67

during the Second Vatican Council, the Pontifical Biblical Commission

issued an important notice that the four Gospels could be studied
fruitfully by making use of historical methods of scholarship.
Nor can the liturgical ressourcement be passed over, of Benedictine
monks at the monasteries of Solesmes, then Mont Csar in Louvain,
Maria Laach in Germany and Klosterneuburg near Vienna, and of
individual scholars such as Romano Guardini, Josef Jungmann, Lambert
Beauduin, Odo Casel, and Pius Parsch. 17
While this fresh appreciation of biblical, patristic and medieval
Christian texts was very much in the air in Catholic theology in northern
Europe, another movement must also be acknowledged, centered in
Belgium, and tracing its origins to the 1920's. It is the ecumenical
concern of the monastery of Union at Chevetogne, founded by the same
Lambert Beauduin who is so influential in the liturgical movement.
Beauduin and his disciple, Clment Lialine, sought to enrich western/Latin liturgy and theology with the worship and theology of the
eastern church. Lialine, who had studied at Louvain and Rome, began
to invite colleagues whom he had come to know at these schools to
ecumenical seminars, beginning in 1942. 18 By means of these seminars,
and of other correspondence on eastern theology with theologians such
as Yves Congar, and by introducing Latin Catholics to the eastern
liturgy, Beauduin, Lialine and the monastery at Chevetogne made the
eastern theological perspective a significant influence especially among
Belgian and French theologians and bishops who became prominent at
Vatican II.
Also "in the air" was another ecumenical influence, one that was
explicitly trinitarian. On the very eve of the Second Vatican Council the
World Council of Churches expanded its 1948 founding statement. In
1948 the Council defined itself as a "fellowship of Churches which
accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour." At the time the
Council's membership was composed mainly of churches of the Reformation. Eventually, however, the Orthodox churches also chose to join
the World Council. Their more trinitarian theology reminded the other
members of the trinitarian dimension of all Christian faith, thus requiring an amendment of the constitution, which, despite some opposition
from some Protestant churches, came to be adopted as the base-statement of the Council. The amended constitution adopted in New Delhi
in 1961, defines the Council as "a fellowship of churches which confess
the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures and
17 See The Sacerdotal Communities of Samt-Sevenn of Pans and Saint-Joseph
of Nice, The Liturgical Movement ( Y Hawthorn, 1964) The beginnings of the
movement are traced to a paper presented by Lambert Beauduin on the pastoral
implications of liturgy at the 1909 Catholic Congress of Malines, Belgium (34-35)
18 Olivier Rousseau provides a history of these seminars for their duration in "Les
journes oecumniques de Chevetogne (1942-1967)" in Claude TROISFONTAINES, ed ,
Au Service de la Parole de Dieu Mlanges offerts Monseigneur Andr-Marie Charue
(Gembloux Duculot, 1968), 451-485

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P. DRILLING

therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the
one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
Especially welcomed by the Orthodox churches, the new base-statement was quickly disseminated in Catholic theological journals just
months before the start of the Council. Two Belgian journals discussing
this major development on the part of the World Council of Churches
would be well known to Louvain professors and Belgian bishops,
lrenikon, the journal of the monastery of Chevetogne, and Nouvelle
Revue Thologique of the Jesuit faculty at Louvain. 19 It is also significant that the Vatican sent five delegates to the New Delhi Assembly,
emissaries of the new Secretariat for Christian Unity.
The role of Grard Philips
Finally, there is the person of Grard Philips, professor of theology
at the University of Louvain from 1944-1969 and chief redactor of
Vatican II's Lumen Gentium. Throughout his years at Louvain Philips
was quietly teaching and writing a theology of grace that was trinitarian
and ecclesiological. Not prominent among the theologians of ressourcement or of ecumenical rapprochement with eastern theology, Philips
nevertheless appropriated the currents recalled in the preceding paragraphs, incorporating them into his systematic theology and his pastoral
writings. Since Belgium and Louvain, in particular, figured so prominently in the renewal movements, it is no surprise that Philips would be
abreast of them all.
When he is appointed to be the redactor of the schema "de Ecclesia"
and specifically writes the trinitarian articles 2-4 and 8, Philips applies
his resources to the task. 20 No mere scribe or stylist, he is clearly the
author of the theology of these articles and significantly influential upon
the formation of the entire Dogmatic Constitution. This becomes evident
when an examination is made of some of Philips' publications prior to
and during the Council.
In 1953 Philips published his rationale for a tract on grace which
would rely for its data on the riches uncovered in the "return to the
sources" movement. 21 Grace is the action of God, Philips notes, renewing human persons both morally and ontologically. More specifically,
19. See E. BEAUDUIN, "La troisime Assemble du Conseil oecumnique des
glises: New Delhi 1961" lrenikon, 35 (1962), esp. 19-20; and A. WENGER, "La
Nouvelle Base largie du Conseil oecumnique des glises" Nouvelle Revue Thologique, 84 (Jan. 1962), 63-71.
20. Besides the trinitarian redaction which is our particular interest here, Philips
was also especially responsible for the marian chapter VIII of the Constitution. Thus,
Jan GROOTAERS, "Le rle de Mgr G. Philips Vatican II: Quelques rflexions pour
contribuer l'tude du dernier Concile" in Ecclesia a Spiritu Sancto edocta, op. cit.,
368.
21. Grard PHILIPS, "De ratione instituendi tractatum de gratia nostrae sanctificationis," Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 29 (1953), 355-373.

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69

grace is a transformation personnaly expressed, as the three Persons of

God transform human persons. Unfortunately, later scholastic theology
had separated the tract on grace from the tract on the divine Trinity, the
former treating the change in humanity because of God's graciousness
(gratia creata) while the latter dealt with the life of God in the three
Persons (gratia increata). The result was that the mystery of God's
saving intervention on behalf of humanity, the economy of salvation,
was overlooked. At the same time grace came to be reified. Clearly, a
correction was in order.
The correction comes as theology returns to its biblical and patristic
sources. In the writings both of Paul and of John grace is the work of
God through Christ, the incarnate Word and redeemer, in the power of
the Holy Spirit on behalf of sinful humanity. Later, the Greek fathers
speak of deification, by which the divine life is communicated to
humanity "a Spiritu per Filium and Patrem." Philips summarizes by
describing grace as that animation by the Holy Spirit that conforms the
faithful to Christ the Word, who is the perfect image of the Father.
Moreover, the gift of grace is not simply God's communication of
Godself with individuals. It is an ecclesial reality. By grace God creates
the church. There is an unmistakeable preview of the summary statements of Lumen Gentium, article 4, in the following sentence that
appears in the 1953 article: "In its essence, grace will manifest this
imprint of the Trinity [namely, that described in the preceding paragraph
of this essay], and the church, which is by right the organ of that grace
which conforms persons to Christ by means of the animation of the
Spirit, is defined by Saint Cyprian to be 'a people gathered together out
of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.' Thus, grace
unifies the church's members among themselves, making them into a
community."22
How does grace conform persons to Christ, or, to quote Philips more
precisely, "christify" persons? Similarly to the way in which human
nature is assumed by the person of the divine Word in the act of
incarnation. Here, too, not only the flavor, but even some of the phrasing
(e.g., "non dissimili modo"), of the 1953 article have found their way
into Lumen Gentium, in this case article 8. Philips writes in 1953:
And so, just as the human Christ is truly God the Word through an
immediate union, so in the same or rather in a not dissimilar way the person
who is justified (homo Justus) knows God immediately in the Holy Spirit
and in the Spirit is assimilated to the divine persons 2 3
22 Ibid , 370-371 Philips is particularly enamoured of the trinitarian ecclesiology
of Cyprian (De orat Dom , 23), he cites it in subsequent publications, and finally
includes it as the closing statement of the opening trinitarian articles of Lumen Gentium
It is also of interest that Philips found strong encouragement for his trinitarian approach
to grace in the spiritual theology of Jan van Ruysbroeck In the 1953 article Philips
refers to the following piece on Ruysbroeck Paul HENRY, S J , "La mystique tnnitaire
de bienheureux Jean Ruusbroec," Recherches de Science Religieuse, 40 (1952), 335368
23 PHILIPS, "De ratione nstituendi ," 362

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Also in 1953, Philips was one of the participants in the annual

ecumenical study week at the monastery of Chevetogne. The topic was
"The Theology of Grace and Ecumenism." The meeting included Latin,
Orthodox, and Reformed theologians. Along with another Louvain
University professor, Charles Moeller, who later was to be Philips'
assistant on the theological commission at Vatican II, and later still a
member of the Vatican's Secretariat for Christian Unity, Philips
authored the report on the meeting, and included his own suggestions
for ways that the separate traditions could move beyond what had
seemed to be insurmountable differences in their doctrines of grace. 24
In the chapter entitled "Grace and the Holy Trinity" Philips writes
that when the doctrines of the Reformed, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox
Christian traditions are examined alongside one another it is clear that
there is a "fundamental agreement." In the same chapter Philips suggests
a corrective to the Catholic theology that was widely current: "Grace
cannot be a thing we possess; it is always inseparable from a person who
loves, who gives Himself, who brings us into communion with Himself.
This is the essential point in Reformation theology." But Philips claims
that the Catholic tradition never failed to maintain a more sound doctrine
of grace as personal. As witness he cites the Council of Trent:
"The beginning of justification itself, in adults, must be understood as
coming from the prevenient grace of God through Jesus Christ, that is, from
the calling by which He calls them, without any previous merit on their
part; so that those who by their sins have been turned away from God, by
His grace, which moves them and helps them to turn and receive their
justification, may, freely assenting to and cooperating with this grace, be
so disposed that when God touches the heart of man by the light of the Holy
Spirit, it is not true either that a man does nothing when he receives this
inspiration, because he can reject it, or that without the grace of God he
can approach the righteousness he is called to by his own free will..."25
Undoubtedly, given these earlier ecumenical considerations, Phil
ips was quite comfortable with the ecumenical concerns of the majority
of the bishops of Vatican II. He would not only be ready to include
ecumenically helpful positions within the dogmatic constitution on the
church, but had such positions available to him in his prior publications.
An ecclesiology based upon a trinitarian theology of grace is one such
position.
In the decade preceding the Council, Philips also published several
short tracts in a more pastoral vein, to assist the theological sophistica
tion of parish priests and the laity. Some of these tracts provide a preview
of the theology of Lumen Gentium's trinitarian ecclesiology, none more
strikingly perhaps than a 1956 lecture published by the Catholic Center

24 C MOELLER and G PHILIPS, The Theology of Grace and the Ecumenical

Movement, trans RA Wilson (London Mowbray, 1961)
25 Council of Trent, Sess VI, ch 5, see Denzinger-Schonmetzer 1525

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71

of Belgian Intellectuals. The lecture was entitled "The Holy Trinity in

the Life of the Christian."26
Philips raises the question, "Why did God reveal the mystery of the
Trinity to us?" His answer is that God desires that human creation
participate in the vital richness of God:
This supernatural knowledge has as its goal that, even in this life, we can
enter into the fullness of life which the Father communicates to the Son
and, through Him, to the Spirit. This knowledge puts us in contact, in an
undoubtedly mysterious but nevertheless profoundly real way, with each
of the three Persons, assimilating us to them, imprinting upon our souls
their personal properties.
The key here is communication. God communicates the divine
mystery to humanity in a process which, Philips notes, the Greek fathers
have described as deification. It is a process which has its principle in
the Father who transmits life to the Son and through the Son to the Holy
Spirit, and through Jesus this animating Spirit unites us with the Father:
The order of the great return is thus the inverse of the order of origin, and
the recirculation of divine life, of which the ancient authors speak, is
perfect.
Moreover, it is not to gather up human beings individually into the
divine life that is the primary goal of the divine economy of salvation,
but rather to create a world that imitates the "perfect trinitarian community," even if hesitantly and weakly. To move creation toward this point
the triune God has created the church "as the first and primordial of the
works of the one and triune God....[TJhe trinitarian mystery has thus a
concrete and vital implication, eminently practical, for the society of
human beings who have become children of God, working together as
sisters and brothers in the divine Christian family, animated by one and
the same Spirit, possessing only one soul, and that soul is the Holy
Spirit." Then Philips cites one of his favorite passages, Cyprian on the
unity of the church grounded in the unity of the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit.
In both the academic and the pastoral work that he publishes in the
1950's Philips demonstrates that he has appropriated the fruits of the
biblical and patristic return to the sources that has been in progress
especially since the previous decade. His theology is thus based directly
not on the theoreticians of the medieval period, but upon theological
reflection that took place in the early Christian centuries, and upon the
biblical witness of the New Testament. Philips invites his readers, for
example, to discover the outline of what he is expressing in Pauline
passages such as I Cor. 12: 4-6, II Cor. 13: 13; Eph. 2: 18, and in I Pt
1:2.

26 Grard PHILIPS, "La Sainte Trinit dans la vie du Chrtien " The publication
is a pamphlet in a collection named "Appels," Senes V, No 3, 1956, by the Centre
Catholique des Intellectuels Belges

72

P. DRILLING

Examining Philips' works further we find that he treated additional

themes that eventually are included in the dogmatic constitution on the
church. The text on the trinitarian life of the Christian was preceded by
a few years by a tract on "The Mystery of Faith," which Philips prepared
for a student group, "L'Amiti tudiante."27 The text asks the question,
"What is a mystery?" and answers that for St. Paul it is the divine plan
of salvation which God has graciously revealed to humanity. The reference is to I Cor. 2: 7-10. Later in the tract Philips includes several pages
of reflection on New Testament passages that propose the role of the
divine Persons in the operation of the divine plan of salvation.
Faith is the response to the divine mystery, and here Philips shows
his kerygmatic orientation. He explains to the reader that faith cannot
be detailed in a system of theoretical truths. It is not about an idea of
God. Rather it is a more intimate sort of knowledge of the living God
(the phrase "le Dieu vivant" becomes popular with Philips). By faith the
Spirit empowers believers to come to know God and to love him as
Father in Christ Jesus. Finally, the text asks how believers come to be,
answering that the church brings them forth.
Within the same period (1954), Philips wrote an article for parish
priests in the pastoral journal of his native diocese, Lige.28 He is
concerned that pastoral ministry may have been excessively moralizing
and legalistic. Expressing it in the theological language that all priests
trained in the scholastic context would understand, Philips encourages
that another perspective be adopted, arguing that the theological virtues
precede the moral virtues. Then he moves to a more biblical mode of
speaking. The good news of the mystery of God's grace, he writes, has
priority over the law and the prophets. Jesus' criticism of the Scribes
and the Pharisees is not that they obey the law, but that they lack
precisely the sense of mystery that ought to ground obedience to the law.
Philips invites his fellow priests to adopt a more sacramental orientation
to pastoral ministry, with the understanding that the sacraments enable
us to live the way of Christ and gather us up into the trinitarian love of
which Jesus is both the messenger and the instrument.
Philips goes on to celebrate church:
Grace is ecclesial even as it is christological: it is the richness par excellence of the community which generates members of the indivisible body
of which Christ is the head. Grace is everywhere in the church, in its
teaching and in its liturgy, and even in its precepts and its directives.
Philips ends by encouraging pastoral ministers not to let their action
become disengaged from contemplation of the mystery of the divine
economy. It is a call to prayer. "The more one's duties press upon one,

27. Grard PHILIPS, "Le Mystre de la Foi" (Louvain: Aux ditions de l'Amiti
tudiante, 1952; reprinted as Appels Series IX, No. 4, 1958).
28. Grard PHILIPS, "La grce dans le ministre paroissial," Revue Ecclsiastique
de Lige, 41 (1954), 3-12.

TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

73

the more the modern apostle has need of prayer to avoid being carried
away by the current." Prayer keeps us in touch with the living God.
Finally, I draw the attention of the reader to one more tract in the
collection "Appels." On the communion of the saints, it is in several
particulars a preview of chapter VII of Lumen Gentium.29 Beginning
with the notion that the baptized faithful make up a people who are on
pilgrimage toward heavenly glory, the baptized are celebrated both here
and hereafter. The chief theological category here is communion. Philips develops its significance by means of two New Testament images.
One is Paul's image of the Body of Christ in which all the baptized
faithful are united in their head who is Christ. The other is the image of
the vine and the branches of John's Gospel, which illustrates how Christ
gives life and fruitfulness to the baptizes in and through the church. 30
The trinitarian structure of ecclesial and individual Christian life to
which Philips returns over and again recurs in this tract. Philips also
stresses that the inner life of communion with the divine community has
its visible expression in the church for those who are still pilgrims on
the way. 31
Attentive, then, to the ressourcement and ecumenical movements,
Philips reconstructs his Louvain courses on grace so that they better
reflect the economy of the living triune God as it becomes sacramentalized in the church of the triune God. 32 At the same time he attempts to
communicate his insights to the priests and lay people with whom he
has contact in the area around Lige. In the midst of this activity, Pope
John XXIII announces in January 1959 his intention to convoke an
ecumenical council. Philips is appointed to be one of the theologians on
the Preparatory Theological Commission. He is particularly entrusted
with the composition of the chapter on the laity. 33
In February and March of 1963, after the proposed schema which
he authored in October 1962 was accepted as the basis for the Council's
dogmatic constitution on the church, Philips assumed the role of editor
of the entire text. In this role he immediately set to work, undoubtedly
drawing upon his own reflections and compositions on the topic, to
ground Vatican IPs teaching in a trinitarian ecclesiology of communion.

29 Grard PHILIPS, "Je crois la Communion des Saints" (Lige Collection

"Appels", Sries X, No 8, d )
30 See Lumen Gentium, aa 6 & 7
31 Here there are hints of Lumen Gentium, a 8
32 The implementation of the 1953 ETL article on reconstructing the course on
grace is indicated by the following three course titles "De Spintu Sancto et Ecclesia
in theologia contemporanea" ( 1957-1958), "De Spintu Sancto in vita Ecclesiae" ( 19581959), and "De Epiclesi' (1959-1960) Also evidence of its implementation is the
posthumously published treatise on grace L'Union Personnelle avec le Dieu Vivant
(Gembloux Duculot, 1974), esp 275-281
33 This appears as chapter VI of the schema Aeternus Unigeniti Pater It is not
surprising in the light of his attentiveness to pastoral concerns that Philips also com
posed significant works on the theology of the laity during the 1950s

74

P. DRILLING

To appreciate just how intentionally Philips brought to bear upon

his conciliar tasks not only the theological content he had been developing during his teaching and pastoral career, but also the method to which
he had committed himself, it is valuable to advert to a remarkable article
of which he is the author and which was scheduled to appear in print
just at the very time that he came to assume the role of chief redactor of
Lumen Gentium?* In "Two Tendencies in contemporary theology: a
footnote to the Second Vatican Council" Philips not only distinguishes
and analyzes the two tendencies, but he reveals his leanings toward the
more progressive of the two (without denying that the former is also
essential), while attempting to assure theologians that they need to and
can create a synthesis that takes both tendencies into account.
At the start Philips takes pains to clarify that he is not speaking of
distinct theological schools, such as thomism, scotism, and suarezianism. He is writing about more fundamental tendencies, both of which
are necessary: the tendency to be preoccupied about how to conserve
the message of revelation and the tendency to be preoccupied about how
to translate the message for successive generations and diverse groups.
Philips recognizes the task of conservation to be "fundamental and
primordial," while the task of communicating the revelation must make
it actual for those who need a living faith.
The danger that accompanies too strong a preoccupation with conservation is that it can lead to the enclosure of the saving Word of God
"in an inaccessible sanctuary." The danger that accompanies a preoccupation to make revelation accessible at any cost is that the message
evaporates and the way to salvation becomes compromised. Despite the
dangers, it is not difficult to understand that the two tendencies that have
always been with the church will continue to affect its deliberations and
teaching because the limited human beings who deliberate and teach are
characterized by temperaments that tend toward one or the other tendency. Balancing the two is both necessary and yet difficult to achieve.
It was likely in response to the tensions that had emerged in the first
session of the Council that Philips wrote this article. He notes in one of
the opening sentences that "at certain moments in the history of theological thought, the confrontation between the two tendencies can provoke lively discussions and lead to conflict." As the article continues,
Philips seems to be assuring those espousing the conservative tendency
that the Council bishops and theologians proposing change are not less
devoted to conserving the authentic Gospel message of salvation than
are they. He tries to demonstrate that the changes being proposed intend
to overcome some excesses of the conservative tendency for the sake of
more authentic presentation of the Gospel message. To cite an example
that is pertinent to the trinitarian ecclesiology that is the focus of this
article, Philips discusses two approaches to the mystery of faith.
34. Grard PHILIPS, "Deux tendances dans la thologie contemporaine: en marge
du IIe Concile de Vatican," Nouvelle Revue Thologique, 85,3 (March 1963), 225-238.

TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

75

Quoting Thomas Aquinas that the act of believing does not end at
the words that express the faith but at the reality that is believed, Philips
remarks that necessary as notions and propositions are in order to enable
the human mind to grasp in some way what it believes, nevertheless we
adhere not to formulas that express the faith but we put our faith in "God
the all-powerful Father, in Jesus Christ his only Son and in the Holy
Spirit speaking in the Church."35 Propositions and formulas indicate the
mysterious truth but they never express it in adequate terms.
Faith can be and needs to be expressed in different words and
propositions at different times and to different people, otherwise the
personal character of the divine-human communication will be lost. It
is the living God addressing human beings living in different, often
profoundly different, circumstances of psychology, culture, and re
ligious development.36 For this reason, while not abandoning the en
richment of theology contributed in the great scholastic age, there is a
return in church teaching (read, the texts being debated at that time at
Vatican II) to the more lively and concrete language of the Bible and
the ancient Fathers.37 This language is simpler and more directly evan
gelical. 38
In a posthumously published essay, Philips writes that
[a]fter an initial hesitation, the Council deliberately took the methodical
route of the history of salvation, registering, perhaps insufficiently, its
pneumatological perspectives.39
One does not encounter in the final text [of Lumen Gentium] any abstract
definitions, but one senses everywhere a pastoral intention, a dynamic
interpretation of all the concepts and images that are used, a fidelity without
any break to biblical language and to a clearly marked religious and
spiritual inspiration.40

35 Ibid , 227 The Aquinas reference is to S II-II, q 1, a 2, ad 2

36 Philips returns to the theme of "the living God" after the Council in "Quelques
rflexions sur la thologie purement notionelle et la thologie relle," Ephemendes
Theologicae Lovanienses, 45 (1969), 103-111
37 Grard PHILIPS, "Deux tendances ," op cit, 235
38 Ibid, 238
39 Grard PHILIPS, "Les mthodes thologiques de Vatican II" in J -P Jossua, ed ,
Le Service Thologique dans L'glise (Paris Cerf, 1974), 20 Philips' "perhaps insufficiently" is a reminder of a comment of Charles Moeller in "Le Ferment des Ides dans
l'laboration de la Constitution," op cit, 103, 1 Moeller indicates his sympathy
with a conciliar intervention by Maronite Archbishop Ignatius Ziad, who, in the second
session of the Council, called for greater attention to the ecclesial role of the Holy Spirit
than was present even in the revisions made during the winter of 1963 For Ziad's full
text, see Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilu Oecumenici Vaticani II, Vol 2, pars 3
(Vatican Typis polyglottis Vaticanis, 1971), 211-213
40 PHILIPS, "Les mthodes thologiques de Vatican II," op cit ,22

76

DRILLING

A Trinitarian Church
The theology which Philips had put into writing in the 1950s and
which found a worldwide voice in the debates and decisions of the
Second Vatican Council has not lost its relevance. Confirmed as the
teaching of the Roman Catholic church for the present time, a trinitarian
ecclesiology remains still to be worked out, both directly and by impli
cation, in the ongoing life of the church. I suggest that there are five
areas in which a rereading and fuller appropriation of the ecclesiological
teaching of Vatican II could lead to more profound fidelity on the part
of Catholics.
( 1 ) Articles 1 -4 of Lumen Gentium sketch the foundations of church
life and ministry in the salvific activity of the transcendent God who
chooses to interact with humanity. The church shares in the mystery of
God. It is not simply a social club at prayer. Any analysis of the meaning
and role of the church that fails to take into account the theology of
church, that is, the church as a creation of the divine economy, fails
finally to appreciate what and who church is.
Thus, while critical study of the structures, ministry, worship,
beliefs, mandates, spiritualities and devotions of the church is necessary,
the conclusions of these studies and the decisions that follow therefrom
can never be divorced from the divine plan for the church as revealed
in the New Testament's teaching on the design of the eternal God which
is being worked out through Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy
Spirit. A danger is that recourse to the divine plan can become an excuse
for mystification. No less dangerous is failure to attend sufficiently to
the divine quality of the church.
(2) While being attentive to the origins and goal of the church in the
transcendent God, the church's leaders and all the faithful, including
theologians, can be consistently attentive to how the church lives its
daily life by the power of the living God. This is a call to faith and to
the prayer that keeps faith in the forefront of the consciousness of all the
baptized. It is also a call to celebrate and welcome without fear or
hesitation the enormous, if messy, variety of charisms of the great mass
of baptized faithful, even as it is a call not to become overwhelmingly
discouraged by the limitations, flaws and sins of the members of the
church, both those among the leadership and those among the "fol
lowers" who are variably too demanding or too inert.
The power of the church is in the Spirit of the living God who draws
us into the divine mystery through the risen Lord Jesus by the instru
ments of word and sacrament and through the human persons who each
day communicate the saving presence of the Lord. Communion with
God and conversation with God are the staple of daily life in the church,
the gift that recurs repeatedly. The church that comes from and is
heading toward God lives its daily life by the power of the same God.
Awareness of this reality should maintain the confidence of all the
faithful.

TRINITARIAN ECCLESIOLOGY

77

(3) Following upon the two more vertical qualities that pertain
essentially to church, some horizontal implications of a trinitarian
ecclesiology become more apparent. The first is the church's reality as
a communion. The church is a kind of polis. But the politics of church
is not monarchy or aristocracy or oligarchy of democracy or anarchy,
but communion. It is difficult even to imagine what communion would
be like since no human political order on the natural level has ever
attained or even seeks to attain communion, although longing for and
hints of communion can be discerned in every order, even tyrannies.
Little wonder that the church is engaged in such a struggle to constitute
itself as a communion. Yet, this is what the triune God empowers the
church created in its own divine image and likeness to actualize in its
many manifestations. The hidden reality of the ecclesial mystery haltingly manifests communion in its limited communities as they take
shape at each moment of history, both locally and universally.
Because of the unique political reality that communion is, and given
the church's supernatural core which continually draws us to rise beyond where we are, the baptized often give up trying to create communion, because the effort is so demanding and we tend to become weary.
Monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy seem easier to
achieve, and so they are sought. Disgusted with the failures of the
established church to respond to their longing for some particular
manifestation of communion, some withdraw to try to create church on
their own or to find salvation individually. But now that a trinitarian
ecclesiology has been so explicitly taught in the documents of Vatican
II and reaffirmed in the 1985 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, the whole
Catholic church has more resources at hand to realize why the church
continually falls short of becoming itself. Communion is a goal where
our reach exceeds by far our grasp. Nevertheless, reach we must.
(4) In the wake of Vatican II no Catholic can anticipate that
communion be limited to the Roman Catholic church. Communion is
meant to embrace "the great church." On most levels no one questions
this truth articulated in Lumen Gentium and in the Decree on Ecumenism, but there is reason to wonder if we haven't lost our nerve to
take the bold steps with which the ecumenical initiatives of the Roman
Catholic church began in the days of Pope John XXIII. What is lacking
at the moment is not a failure of ideas; rapprochement on the level of
ideas abounds in the published conclusions of a wide range of ecumenical dialogues. What seems to be lacking, on every level, is engagement
with others who share with us a faith experience of the triune God and
who recognize that we are, though separated in various ways, fundamentally united in the saving mystery of divine economy. Isn't this the core
foundation of communion? Perhaps if we could engage one another on
the basis of this conviction, even more than in the context of a simply
christological conciousness, our ecumenical encounters could become
more existential, less formal. We could make more decisions in the
interests of unity than we seem thus far willing to do.

78

P. DRILLING

(5) Finally, realizing that church communion is to be the avantgarde

of worldwide communion on the part of all human society, the churches
would be less likely to be among the causes of economic hardship (viz.
fundamentalist-Catholic tension in Latin and South America) and of
political violence (viz. Catholic-Orthodox rivalries in the territories of
the former Yugoslavia or Protestant-Catholic rivalries in Northern Ireland) and of more subtle but thus more insidious discrimination (viz.
racism in the United States). Those engaged in these conflicts, and so
many others that are similar, might become more conscious of their
religious roots in the mystery of the transcendent God who calls them
to communion and conversation both with the triune divine community
and with their neighbors/ennemies who also share life with God through
Christ in the Holy Spirit.

RESUME
It was a remarkable shift for the Second Vatican Council to adopt
a trinitarian ecclesiology. What had originally been submitted to the
Council for consideration in November 1962 was an ecclesiology of
the Mystical Body of Christ in the tradition o/Mystici Corporis. The
present essay reports the history of the formation of the opening
trinitarian articles of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium.
Then it undertakes to uncover the influences upon the formation of the
text, paying special attention to the theological history of the redactor,
Grard Philips. Finally some conclusions are drawn for the current
life of the church.

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