On the Church Militant

St. Robert Bellarmine's theological writings on the Church of Christ constitute an invaluable treasure not only for Catholics, but for the commonweal and eternal salvation of humanity itself. This is no slight exaggeration. His is the very first independent theological and dogmatic treatise on the Church. Patristic and medieval Catholic authors treated on the mystery of the Church, to be sure; but they provided no free-standing treatment de ecclesia.Bellarmine's is the...
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St. Robert Bellarmine's theological writings on the Church of Christ constitute an invaluable treasure not only for Catholics, but for the commonweal and eternal salvation of humanity itself. This is no slight exaggeration. His is the very first independent theological and dogmatic treatise on the Church. Patristic and medieval Catholic authors treated on the mystery of the Church, to be sure; but they provided no free-standing treatment de ecclesia.Bellarmine's is the first and the best of its kind.

From the Foreword

St. Robert Bellarmine's On the Church Militant is the first ever English language translation of his treatise De Ecclesia Militante, dealing with questions such as, what is the Church? Who is in the Church? How do we define it? Not only does Bellarmine define it, he refutes false notions of the Church, such as the Protestant contention that the Church is invisible, as well as ancient heresies that bear upon the modern debate such as, are only the good in the Church? Are sinners also in the Church?

As always, Bellarmine answers the question directly from Scripture, the Fathers and right reason to show us clearly that there is a visible Church composed of those united in the same profession of faith and unity of the Sacraments, irrespective of their interior disposition.

This is the latest from the Bellarmine translation project, which aims to translate the whole of Bellarmine's De Controversiis into English. For more info, visit http://www.mediatrixpress.com.