Leigos e teologia: a formação da consciência social da doutrina cristã

Abstract

This paper presents a contribution from of theology to the emergence, since Vatican II, the Christian laity in the Church and in civil society, this emergency which has lifted the urgency of the need for theological formation of the laity. A first historical investigation attests, in the early Church, the large number of lay people involved in doing theology. From this observation follows naturally a question about the lay identity in the Church and in society, especially in regard to this work. With the objective of closing this issue, the paper discusses the formation as a process of human and Christian maturity, going through an anthropology of theological knowledge, the ecclesial dimension of the human and Christian formation and specific aspects of lay formation, as the doctrinal, spiritual and anthropological.