In chapter seven of his book entitled Models of The Church; Dulles makes it apparent that discipleship is a broad and flexible concept. In a bid to explain this concept, Dulles incorporates the use of many subheadings to enable an insightful understanding of this concept. Dulles argues that discipleship is a term that concurs in meaning with pastoral leadership (Dulles 207). In this chapter, Dulles establishes that the only time in the Roman Catholic Literatures where the concept of discipleship is mentioned, is when the church members are referred to as the disciples (Dulles 207).
Dulles emphasizes that the concept of discipleship is rooted in the public ministry of Jesus Christ (Dulles 207-210). Dulles concurs with the fact that Jesus’ main objective at the onset of his ministry was to convert the entire Israel community. When it failed to realise, Jesus decided to identify a few individuals from his followers and subsequently trained them to carry and deliver the message of good news even after his death (Dulles 207-2010). In addition to the above, discipleship as established by Dulles involved some degree of intimacy. In essence this was meant to attract the value attached to the value of the Kingdom of God. A good example as recorded in this chapter is when the disciples shared in the Lords’ redemptive suffering (Dulles 211).
Works Cited
Dulles, Avery. Models of the Church. New York: Image, 2013. Internet resource.
Fisher, Abraham B. "The Church as Symbolic Mediation: Revelation Ecclesiology in the
Theology of Avery Dulles, SJ." (2013).
