Understanding the Church Eschatologically. A Pattern of Theological Reform in Texts and Sources of Vatican II

Abstract

The article shows from texts and sources of Vatican II that it is a major strategy of theological reform at the Council to understand the Church eschatologically. Leaving behind positions of traditional neo-scholastic ecclesiology, this strategy remodels the social, missionary, and ecumenical character of the Church. Moreover, it affects the understanding of time and eternity as well as the relationship between the Church in the political order.