Sacrament of the World: The Political Consequences of Viewing the Church as Sacrament

Vatican II likened the church to a sacrament, a symbol of peace and unity for and in the world, and advanced a greater openness to the world. After the council, several theologians spoke of the church as sacrament of the world, that is, a sign of how, according to them, God is healing and reconciling the world. During the same period, theologians expressed a growing awareness of the church’s political responsibilities. Contemporary political theologians, however, argue that the church forms an alternative political body that is the basis for a critique of secular politics. This focus on an ‘alternative’ body could widen the gap between the ecclesial and the secular again. This project concerns the implications of the notion of church as sacrament for the role of the church as a political community. To what extent does it entail an affirming political relationship of the church with the world and to what extent does it lead to the claim to present an alternative form of politics? The aim is to clarify the concept of ‘sacrament of the world’ as applied to church as a political body, and to question the dichotomy between the church as a sacramental political community and secular politics. After a comparison of various understandings of the church as sacrament and their relation to the understanding of church as a political body, the political role of the church as sacrament is clarified, by considering whether and how democracy can itself be understood in sacramental terms.