`Subsistit' in Ecumenical Ecclesiology: J. Ratzinger and E. Jüngel

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of an ecumenical understanding of subsistit, comparing the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's with Eberhard Jüngel's Ecclesiology. According to Ratzinger, the ecclesiological subsistit has a Christological foundation, whereas, according to Jüngel, the term must be understood within the framework of a Trinitarian theology. The author argues that these alternative interpretations of subsistit can be united on the basis of the self-communication of the Trinitarian God. Thus the context in which to understand the subsistit should be the oikonomia rather than the theologia.