James McCurry

Ecclesiology and the Franciscan Charism

Theology

“For nearly fifty years, I dialogued with Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner about the Franciscan intellectual tradition. His theological nuance was profoundly impacted by St. Francis of Assisi’s seminal insight that the Blessed Virgin Mary was the ‘Virgin Made Church’ (Virgo facta Ecclesia)—a leitmotif in the unfolding theology of St. Bonaventure—and the coherent ground for the principle of ‘charity’ which serves as the interpretive optic for the whole body of Fr. Fehlner’s ecclesiology. This volume offers a Franciscan ‘blueprint’ for the meaning of Church—ever ancient, ever new.”