Publication Date: October 17, 2023
From the publisher:
The unhappy obverse to Romano Guardini’s observation in 1922 about “the awakening of the Church in souls,” is “the dying of the Church in souls.” The Church in the Flesh, written in 1950, offers a fervent treatment for the latter in both symptom and cause. Across six refreshingly candid “letters,” Ida Friederike Görres develops a conversation aimed at a clarified, renewed, and strengthened faith in Jesus Christ and His Church. Affirming truth and rejecting error, Görres explains the incarnate nature of the Church and the necessity of the sacraments; the historical reality of the Church and the persistence of Tradition; the simplicity of the reason to believe in the Church: namely, Jesus Christ, the One who issues the invitation to faith; the necessary “nuisance” of morality in the Church’s mission; the kingship of Christ as the basis for the Church’s triumphs and tribulations; and the saints as the living proof of God’s salvific power and purpose.
Görres possessed “an insightful certainty and a fearlessness about the pressing questions and tasks of the Church today” (Joseph Ratzinger). In an elegant English translation (for the first time) by Jennifer S. Bryson, The Church in the Flesh embodies that clear and courageous conviction in presenting the saving truths incarnated in the Church.
