ABSTRACT
In trying to chart the path for the development of the open Church of the future, Catholic philosophers and theologians need to undercut this problem as best they can. Both the open society and the open Church draw their force from the same source: the unrestricted drive to understand, and the quest for insight. In the open Church, recovery from the disease of abstractions and return to the principle of honest speech are the first two orders of business. The open society has much to gain from an open Church. To the open society, the open Church brings a new range of vision, a new depth of understanding. It is in pursuit of the drive to understand that both open society and open Church find their separate identity and their complementarity. The Second Vatican Council has furthered the vision of an open Church in an open society, as a new achievement of men in their pilgrimage through history.
