Cardinal Charles Journet was born in 1891. A native of Switzerland, he rose to become a well-known and highly respected theologian. In 1965 he was elevated to Cardinal. When he passed away at the age of 84, he left a collection of theological works that are rightly considered classics.

Theology of the Church was first published over forty years ago. Now more relevant than ever, the republishing of this classic has been greeted with joy by a great number of Christians. The work is a shorter version of the basic and beautiful book by the same author, the two volume The Church of the Incarnate Word. From this theological work, Cardinal Journet has extracted a shorter and more popular version intended for a wider reading audience.

Readers will welcome the brilliant, intellectually rigorous, but highly spiritual thought which shines throughout the Cardinals writing. And today, when clergy and laymen are more careful than ever to aquire or deepen their theological knowledge, the contribution of Cardinal Journet to ecclesiology needs to be available again.

This edition includes two chapters written shortly after the Second Vatican Council. This addition both complements and gives added depth to the original text, providing the reader with a fresh outook on the learning of the author, whose love of the Church is evident in every sentence. St. Augustines "gaudium et veritate", the joy of seaching for, and bringing forth, the Truth, was certainly the cause for which Cardinal Journet strove.