Anger over long-standing systemic dysfunction in the Roman Catholic Church has led to a disenchantment with the church’s institutional reality. However, for those committed to church reform, a more productive way forward lies with ecclesiology’s constructive engagement with sociology. This article defends the legitimacy of a critical appropriation of sociology in ecclesiology, then proposes the critical realist school of social analysis as particularly well suited to assisting ecclesiology in the development of a concrete program for institutional reform.

中文翻译：

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“去制度化教会”的奇美拉：社会结构分析作为制度化教会改革的途径

对罗马天主教会长期存在的系统性功能障碍的愤怒导致人们对教会的制度现实感到失望。然而，对于那些致力于教会改革的人来说，更有效的前进方式在于教会学与社会学的建设性接触。本文捍卫在教会学中批判性地挪用社会学的合法性，然后提出社会分析的批判现实主义学派特别适合协助教会学制定制度改革的具体方案。