The Theological Resources of Michel de Certeau’s Thought for Envisioning a Synodal Church

Abstract What is it about Michel de Certeau’s thinking and approach to the crisis of Catholicism in the (post-) conciliar years that gives it a particular capacity to inspire the advent of a synodal Church? The contribution attempts to answer this question by outlining the main features of de Certeau’s theological gesture. It will then clarify his perspective of the Christian community, which he approaches from the angle of a “missionary” itinerancy, or even an “exit” or “alteration” provoked by the encounter with the stranger, giving rise to linguistic creativity and requiring a new practice of authority. In the end, it is this “way of doing things” according to Certeau, which can be found in the Scriptures and is constantly being reinvented in very different cultural spaces that can enable ecclesial communities, and the Church as a whole, to embark on the “uncharted path” of synodalization.