A Spiritual Theology of the Priesthood: The Mystery of Christ and the Mission of the Priest
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Hans Urs von Balthasar's writings have pastoral implications that even now are barely recognized and hardly developed. Here a pastorally experienced theologian, who knew von Balthasar personally, unfolds this pastoral dimension for the first time.
Father Dermot Power demonstrates the paradoxical grandeur and weakness of the Catholic priesthood. He highlights the roles of the Catholic priest as servant, bridegroom, shepherd, victim, teacher, prophet, celebrant, and minister of reconciliation. He explores the relationship between the mission of Christ and the states of life within the Church, including the laity, and that between the universal call to holiness and the priestly vocation. He examines the structures of the Church in relation to the inwardness of love, and the new hope it offers for the renewal of the priesthood in the Catholic Church.
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- Presents a spirituality of priesthood that synthesizes and builds on the theology of Power's mentor and friend Hans Urs von Balthasar
- Shows readers how priesthood is rooted in the mystery of Jesus Christ, in the mystery of his person, his life, his death and resurrection, and in the mystery of his presence with us
- Offers a priestly spirituality for our times, a spirituality for every priest who belongs to a sacramental and hierarchical church
- The Ministerial Priesthood in the Light of The Mystery of Christ
- Jesus: Priest And Victim
- The Ministerial Priesthood and Its Ecclesial Setting
- Interiority And Mission
- Priesthood as a State of Life: the Evangelical Counsels and the Radicalism of the Gospel
- The Ministerial Priesthood: Its Classical Modes of Ministry and Presence Within the Church
- The Dynamic of Tradition
"Power's book on priesthood is so eminently worth reading, because it deliberately attempts to draw upon the work of von Balthasar in trying to show us how the reality of the priesthood remains rooted in Jesus Christ."
Crisis
"Father Power gives us... a great gift: a practical, simple, and profound spiritual theology of the priesthood. The spirituality here helps us to live our priesthood as well as to understand it better."
Robert Faricy, S.J.
""For those who have kept up with recent Vatican documents on priestly life and ministry, the hand of von Balthasar will be readily recognizable.... This book belongs in every priest's library."
Homiletic and Pastoral Review