WITHOUT doubt, one of the thorniest and most easily misunderstood doctrines of the Catholic Church is that of salvation. One immediately thinks of the many controversies concerning the difficult phrase, "extra ecclesiam nulla salus" - outside the Church there is no salvation." Though not concerned exclusively with this issue, The Catholic Church and Salvation is an important contribution to understanding it.

Monsignor Fenton, well-known editor of The American Ecclesiastical Review, divides his work into two parts. In the first, he presents, comments upon and interprets the documents of the magisterium pertaining to the Catholic doctrine on salvation and the Church. In the second part, he analyzes the concept of salvation, and shows that the doctrine of salvation is determined by, and depends upon, the very nature of the Church. The last chapter is a historical inquiry into the origins of certain inadequate theological teachings in this matter.

Because of the great importance of the questions under discussion, Monsignor Fenton's The Catholic Church and Salvation will be of great interest to theologians, apologists, missionaries, indeed, to all thinking Christians.

190pp, hardcover with dust jacket, index.