Reading Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, we can note that the mystery of the Church is explained on the basis of biblical metaphors. Two of them play a special role: the Body of Christ and the People of God. How did it happen that the theologians of the Council had assigned this special role to these metaphors while defi ning the Church? Did the theological movements of the previous centuries, especially in Germany, play a leading role in this choice? The answer to the above-mentioned questions is the topic of the present study.
