The doctrine of the church in the works of Henri de Lubac

The author of the article attempts to present systematically the doctrine of the Church of an outstanding French Catholic theologian and an participant of the Second Vatican Council Henri de Lubac. He demonstrates that despite the fact that de Lubac demonstrates the Doctrine of the Church, grounding his doctrine on the Holy Scripture and Tradition, he is in the vein of Roman Catholic ecclesiology, which can be seen in his doctrine of the primacy and infallibility of the Pope of Rome and in his Mariological aspect of the Church. A distinctive feature of the ecclesiology of Cardinal de Lubac is his “Eucharistic ecclesiology”, comparable to the “Eucharistic ecclesiology” of the Orthodox theologian Protopresbyter Nikolai Afanasiev. Speaking of the Church, Fr. A. de Lubac considers various images of the Church: the Church as the People of God, the Church as the Body of Christ, linking this definition with the sacrament of the Eucharist. He also places special emphasis on the Mariological and eschatological aspects of the Church, showing the importance of these aspects for the soteriology and self-awareness of the Church itself. For de Lubac, the Church is a mystery, and it manifests itself in many paradoxes that concern both its very essence and its structure. Analytical and historical methods of theology were used in the study of the topic. The main conclusion is made that the doctrine of the Church by Cardinal de Lubac is not an abstract topic of theology, but a synthesis of the doctrine of the Church, which consists of such sections as triadology, anthropology, Christology, Mariology, eschatology.