Love in the Heart of the Church

Father Christopher O'Donnell, a Carmelite teaching in the Milltown Institute, Dublin, takes up a theme proposed in current theology especially by Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, namely, the important contribution to theology offered by spirituality, and especially by the lives and writings of the saints. This new book, written for the centenary by a specialist in ecclesiology, examines what Therese may have to offer for a contemporary theology of the Church. In a Church wiich is often negatively perceived, St Therese's self-identity as 'love in the heart of the Church' can be a focus for a renewed ecclesiology. After surveying the many faces of the saint in this century in a centenary overview, Father O'Donnell examines various intuitions of St Therese such as the Communion of Saints, charisms, practical charity, intercession, suffering, missions, priests, faith, purgatory, martyrdom, the saints and Mary. He suggests that the development by St Therese of these and other topics is especially significant today for a renewed and vital vision of the Church.