Toward a New Vision of Catholicity for the Chinese Catholic Church: With Insights from Dumitru Stăniloae’s ‘Sobornicity’

Abstract

The Vatican-China agreement has brought all the Chinese bishops into communion with the pope, but the Chinese church remains substantially divided. To overcome the present antagonism, I propose that the Chinese church explore more closely, through the resources of communion ecclesiology, the spiritual dimension of catholicity which privileges the life of the local church rooted in the trinitarian communion of God. In particular, Dumitru Stăniloae’s theology of ‘sobornicity’ as a spiritual unity in communion can help the Chinese church overcome its present political difficulties by clarifying the foundation and source of Christian communion, by accentuating the special role of the Holy Spirit in the unity of the church, and by encouraging a cosmic and eschatological openness in the church’s attitude to the world.