The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (Mersch)
Emile Mersch introduces the reader to the doctrine of the mystical body, that is, the Christian's membership in Christ by which the Christian comes to share now in Christ's own heavenly life. Through the Holy Spirit's life of grace, the Christian is deified, made a participant in the life of the Trinity. Mersch traces this teaching as it develops within the New Testament and as its implications are unfolded by the early Church fathers up through the theological giants of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A doctrine somewhat obscured in the later 20th century, the theology of the mystical body is now more in need of retrieval than ever.
