ABSTRACT
Forone, unlike Milbank and Hauerwas, Healy is a Roman Catholic and his work breathes a post-Vatican II spirit, especially in his depiction of the relation between the church and the world. A change of methodology may not immediately sound challenging. Modern theology, Healy says, differs from premodern theology in that it generally prefers univocal language, favoring “linear and rigorously systematic” argumentation. A feature related to the quest for one ecclesiological supermodel is the general tendency of modern ecclesiologies to suggest a “bipartite structure of the church.” The tendency to single out one church metaphor and the bipartite structure come together in the typical mode of modern ecclesiology, which Healy characterizes as ‘blueprint ecclesiologies.’ Healy's diagnosis in Church, World and a Christian Life and also in Hauerwas is fairly straight forward. In Church, World and a Christian Life, Healy has shown how the modern approach to ecclesiologyhas often been epic.
