This three-section article reappraises both Edward Schillebeeckx’s continuing
significance and the relationship between ecclesiology and political theology. Having
identified two differing sets of concerns within political theology, the first section
argues that the claim that the church is the true form of political theology needs to
be disciplined by a Schillebeeckx-like critical ecclesiology if it is to avoid ecclesiological
idealism. The second section argues that such transformative ecclesiology is itself an
act of intra-ecclesial political theology; and the third that it needs to be pursued with
greater political astuteness than Schillebeeckx manifested in his theology of ministry.