[The identity of the family as the domestic church is not self-evident yet it has sustained serious theological development since Vatican II. The question is whether or not the trajectory it has followed has always been legitimate. With greater acceptance, the problems of authentic appropriation have emerged. This essay will examine the trajectory which the domestic church has taken, its theological foundations, its seminal emergence at Vatican II, and the ecclesial and christological axes that have been proposed as constitutive of its nature.]