The Collected Works of Edward Schillebeeckx Volume 1 Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God

As far back as his first major book Schillebeeckx propounded an anthropological approach to the sacraments. In Christ the sacrament of the encounter with God he draws on theologically fruitful work by phenomenological anthropologists like Merleau-Ponty, Buytendijk and Binswanger. That makes Schillebeeckx's distinctive idiom and modern approach appealing even today. He rediscovers, as it were from within, the notions forged by scholastic theology, and thus restores to us a theology of the sacraments rooted in the biblical and patristic soil from which they first sprang. Schillebeeckx's speculative synthesis of this quest still has a fresh ring to it. He describes Christ as the "primordial sacrament" in a reflection on his public ministry, death and resurrection inspired by the universal human search for such a 'sacrament'. He concludes that the church's sacraments have to be an "earthly extension" of the liberation brought by Christ's story. Schillebeeckx ends by describing sacraments as "grace made visible" that gives crowning moments in Christian life a mystical quality.

Edward Schillebeeckx was an internationally known theologian and one of the leading progressives at the Second Vatican Council. He was the author of many books, including God is New Each Moment, published by Continuum. He died in 2010.

Introduction to the Collected Works of Edward Schillebeeckx / Foreword / Introduction / 1. Christ, Sacrament of God / 2. The Church, Sacrament of the Risen Christ / 3. Implications of the Ecclesial Character of Sacramental Action / 4. The Sacraments in their Fullness: The Fruitful Sacrament / 5. Encounter with Christ in the Church as a Sacrament of the Encounter with God: The Effects of a Sacrament / 6. Sacramental Encounters with Christ: Culminating Moments in the Ecclesial Character of Christian Life / 7. The Mystical Quality of the Sacraments / Conclusion