Mission as the Nature of the Church: Developments in Catholic Ecclesiology

This article traces Catholic developments in an ecclesiology that recognizes the essential missionary nature of the church. Starting from Vatican II it treats various documents of papal magisterium, and then surveys selected documents of episcopal magisterium in the last fifty years. After a survey of Catholic theologians who build their ecclesiology on the church's missionary nature, the author outlines in very brief detail his own project for the construction of a missionary ecclesiology.