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The saints are good company. They are the heroes of the faith who blazed new and creative paths to holiness; they are the witnesses whose testimonies echo throughout the ages in the memory of the Church. Most Christians, and particularly Catholics, are likely to have their own favorite saints, those who inspire and “speak” to believers as they pray and struggle through the challenges of their own lives. Leonard DeLorenzo’s book addresses the idea of the communion of saints, rather than individual saints, with the conviction that what makes the saints holy and what forms them into a communion is one and the same. Work of Love investigates the issue of communication within the communio sanctorum and the fullness of Christian hope in the face of the meaning—or meaninglessness—of death. In an effort to revitalize a theological topic that for much of Catholic history has been an indelible part of the Catholic imaginary, DeLorenzo invokes the ideas of not only many theological figures (Rahner, Ratzinger, Balthasar, and de Lubac, among others) but also historians, philosophers (notably Heidegger and Nietzsche), and literary figures (Rilke and Dante) to create a rich tableau. By working across several disciplines, DeLorenzo argues for a vigorous renewal in the Christian imagination of the theological concept of the communion of saints. He concludes that the embodied witness of the saints themselves, as well as the liturgical and devotional movements of the Church at prayer, testifies to the central importance of the communion of saints as the eschatological hope and fulfillment of the promises of Christ.
“DeLorenzo has made a substantial contribution to contemporary Roman Catholic theology in this complex volume, one that fruitfully links modern reactions to the ultimate reality of death with traditional and contemporary scriptural and theological perspectives on Jesus Christ’s death and Resurrection." —Reading Religion
“DeLorenzo’s book about the saints shines new light on the whole of the human life within Christ. It will certainly benefit any preacher who wants a better sermon for All Saints, for Holy Week, or for funerals.” —Anglican Theological Review
“DeLorenzo delves back into the Trinitarian nature of God, the Paschal Mystery, and the ultimate meaning of our own death to imagine a connectedness of holiness transcending time and space. This text is meticulously researched and flawlessly written . . . highly recommended for all theological and academic libraries.” —Catholic Library World
"For Protestant readers, Work of Love is . . . a chance to experience the doctrine of the communion of saints in its Catholic fullness, to see how the veneration of one’s forebears in the faith might attest to and not distract from a robust belief in Christ’s Godhood. Most of all, though, the book is a work of love because it teaches us how to think about our own dead—that ever-lengthening mental list of people who, in their friendship or antagonism or both, give us bits of ourselves, then leave." —Christian Century
"Leonard DeLorenzo’s Work of Love attends to limitations in our modern ways of thinking and imagining the world. His 'lives of the saints' is no mere gloss over our fragmented world. In his study, the saints are living and active as we begin to see the deep connection between holiness and communion, between our good end in God and God’s ever-active presence to the world." —David M. McCarthy, Fr. James M. Forker Professor of Catholic Social Teaching, Mount St. Mary’s University
"Work of Love: A Theological Reconstruction of the Communion of Saints is a masterly contribution by a promising young theologian. Building upon and irenically critiquing Thiel and Johnson, DeLorenzo shows why the communion of saints is not a mere pious add-on to Catholic theology, but instead belongs to its very heart. Today we are facing an urgent need to retrieve the theology of the communion of saints, lest our ecclesiology and pastoral practice wither away on a merely sociological vine. This book is a major first step toward revitalizing the core of Christian communio." —Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary
“DeLorenzo makes a singular contribution to the needed ‘recovery of an eschatological imagination’ for contemporary Christians. He brings new depth and clarity to the issue, both analytically and synthetically. A most impressive piece of scholarship, in which theology and spirituality enrich one another.” —Rev. Robert P. Imbelli, author of Rekindling the Christic Imagination
“He sees more deeply into this perennial belief of the Catholic Church about the Communion of Saints than I have seen treated elsewhere. Her criticizes how our modern secular culture deals with death with this belief.” —Theological Studies
“This carefully researched book by Leonardo DeLorenzo . . . certainly deserves the attention of scholars even though it does not fit easily into the category of systematic theology.” —Catholic Books Review
Leonard J. DeLorenzo is associate professional specialist and Director of Notre Dame Vision in the McGrath Institute for Church Life, and he also teaches in the department of theology at the University of Notre Dame.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1
- Indefinite Article
- Looking Backward
- The Development of a Doctrine
- The Orthodoxy of the Body of the Faithful
- State of the Communion
- The Diagnosis
- Looking Forward
CHAPTER 2
- Solitary Confinement
- Regarding Christian Hope
- Forgetting Death
- Interlude: Transgressing the Forbidden, Seeing the Invisible
- The Rilkean Opening
- The View from Heidegger
- Remembering the Forgotten Death
CHAPTER 3
- Word of Life
- Toward a Christian Account of Death and Communication
- Karl Rahner: A Theology of Death within Christian Eschatology
- Joseph Ratzinger: Communication within Salvation History
- Hans Urs von Balthasar: Heeding Absolute Communication
- Given to Nothing: Creation and Resurrection
- The Word of Life
CHAPTER 4
- Dispossessing Desire
- Becoming Fully Human
- Encountering the Risen Christ: The Beginning of a New End
- At the End of All Exploring: What Augustine Found
- Ontology by Desire
- Desiring God
CHAPTER 5
- Bodily Memory
- A Fool’s Errand?
- Ordering the Commedia
- The Communicative Nature
- The Space of Freedom
- The Church’s Oblation
- Ascension, Assumption, and the Resurrection of the Body
CHAPTER 6
- Work of Love
- Hastening to Wholeness
- The Coming of the Lord
- A Beautiful Pattern: The Aesthetic Pedagogy of the Book of Exodus
- Interlude: Glory as Dwelling, Dwelling as Communion
- Thérèse of Lisieux and the Beauty of the Earth
- Teresa of Avila and the Beauty of Carmel
- Mother Teresa and the Beauty of Calcutta
- Dorothy Day and the Beauty of New York
- The Intermediate State and the Beauty of Wholeness
- Liturgical Training and the Beauty of Prayer
- God’s People and the Beauty of Particularity
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index