Ecclesiology

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In

origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership
.

In its early history, one of the Church's primary ecclesiological issues had to do with the status of

ecumenical
ecclesiology.

The word ecclesiology was defined in the 19th century as the science of the building and decoration of church buildings and is still used in that sense in the context of architectural history.

Etymology

The roots of the word ecclesiology come from the Greek ἐκκλησία, ekklēsia (Latin: ecclesia) meaning "congregation, church"[notes 1] and -λογία, -logia, meaning "words", "knowledge", or "logic", a combining term used in the names of sciences or bodies of knowledge.

The similar word ecclesialogy first appeared in the quarterly journal

The British Critic in 1837, in an article written by an anonymous contributor[3] who defined it thus:

We mean, then, by Ecclesialogy, a science which may treat of the proper construction and operations of the Church, or Communion, or Society of Christians; and which may regard men as they are members of that society, whether members of the Christian Church in the widest acceptation of the term, or members of some branch or communion of that Church, located in some separate kingdom, and governed according to its internal forms of constitution and discipline.[4]

However, in volume 4 of the Cambridge Camden Society's journal The Ecclesiologist, published in January 1845, that society (the CCS) claimed that they had invented the word ecclesiology:[3]

...as a general organ of Ecclesiology; that peculiar branch of science to which it seems scarcely too much to say, that this very magazine gave first its being and its name.[5]

The Ecclesiologist was first published in October 1841 and dealt with the study of the building and decoration of churches. It particularly encouraged the restoration of Anglican churches back to their supposed Gothic splendour and it was at the centre of the wave of

registered charity).[6]

The situation regarding the etymology has been summed up by Alister McGrath: "'Ecclesiology' is a term that has changed its meaning in recent theology. Formerly the science of the building and decoration of churches, promoted by the Cambridge Camden Society, the Ecclesiological Society and the journal The Ecclesiologist, ecclesiology now stands for the study of the nature of the Christian church."[7]

Catholic ecclesiology

Stained-glass window in a Catholic church depicting St. Peter's Basilica in Rome sitting "Upon this rock," a reference to Matthew 16:18.[8] Most present-day Catholics interpret Jesus as saying he was building his church on the rock of the Apostle Peter and the line of popes who claim Petrine succession from him.

Catholic ecclesiology today has a plurality of models and views, as with all Catholic Theology since the acceptance of scholarly Biblical criticism that began in the early to mid-20th century. This shift is most clearly marked by the encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu in 1943. Avery Robert Cardinal Dulles, S.J. contributed greatly to the use of models in understanding ecclesiology. In his work Models of the Church, he defines five basic models of the Church that have been prevalent throughout the history of the Catholic Church. These include models of the Church as institution, as mystical communion, as sacrament, as herald, and as servant.[9]

The ecclesiological model of Church as an institution holds that the

St. Peter the Apostle
, to whom Christ gave "the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven". Thus, the Popes, in the Catholic view, have a God-ordained universal jurisdiction over the whole Church on earth. The Catholic Church is considered Christ's mystical body, and the universal sacrament of salvation, whereby Christ enables human to receive sanctifying grace.

The model of Church as Mystical Communion draws on two major Biblical images, the first of the "Mystical Body of Christ" (as developed in Paul's Epistles) and the second of the "People of God." This image goes beyond the Aristotelian-Scholastic model of "

Communitas Perfecta" held in previous centuries. This ecclesiological model draws upon sociology and articulations of two types of social relationships: a formally organized or structured society (Gesellschaft) and an informal or interpersonal community (Gemeinschaft). The Catholic theologian Arnold Rademacher maintained that the Church in its inner core is community (Gemeinschaft) and in its outer core society (Gesellschaft). Here, the interpersonal aspect of the Church is given primacy and that the structured Church is the result of a real community of believers. Similarly, Yves Congar argued that the ultimate reality of the Church is a fellowship of persons. This ecclesiology opens itself to ecumenism[10] and was the prevailing model used by the Second Vatican Council in its ecumenical efforts. The Council, using this model, recognized in its document Lumen gentium that the Body of Christ subsists in a visible society governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible structure.[11]

Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology

From the

patriarchal pentarchy, embodied in ecclesiastical unity of five major patriarchal thrones (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem).[13]

There is disagreement between the

Patriarchate of Moscow
on the question of separation between ecclesiological and theological primacy and separation of the different ecclesiological levels:

Ecclesiology of the Church of the East

Historical development of the

Late Roman Empire and its eastern successor, the Byzantine Empire, resulted in the creation of its distinctive theological and ecclesiological traditions, regarding not only the questions of internal institutional and administrative organization of the Church, but also the questions of universal ecclesiastical order.[14]

Protestant ecclesiology

A 17th-century illustration of Article VII: Of the Church from the Augsburg Confession, which states "...one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." Here the rock from Matthew 16:18 refers to the preaching and ministry of Jesus as the Christ, a view discussed at length in the 1537 Treatise.[15]

Magisterial Reformation ecclesiology

infallible
in its dogmatic teachings.

Radical Reformation ecclesiology

There is no single "Radical Reformation Ecclesiology". A variety of views is expressed among the various "Radical Reformation" participants.

A key "Radical Reformer" was

Anabaptist
". He wrote:

They verily are not the true congregation of Christ who merely boast of his name. But they are the true congregation of Christ who are truly converted, who are born from above of God, who are of a regenerate mind by the operation of the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the divine Word, and have become the children of God, have entered into obedience to him, and live unblamably in his holy commandments, and according to his holy will with all their days, or from the moment of their call.[17]

This was in direct contrast to the hierarchical,

Protestant movements of the Reformation
.

Some other Radical Reformation ecclesiology holds that "the true church [is] in heaven, and no institution of any kind on earth merit[s] the name 'church of God.'"[16]

See also

For historical Protestant ecclesiology, see

Notes

  1. Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint), and later adopted by the Christian community to refer to the assembly of believers.[2]

References

  1. ^ Diogenes Laertius, 8.41 (available online, retrieved 22 May 2008).
  2. ^ F. Bauer, W. Danker, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, third ed., (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2000), ἐκκλησία.
  3. ^ a b White, James F. (1979). The Cambridge Movement: the ecclesiologists and the Gothic revival (revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 48–9.
  4. The British Critic Quarterly Theological Review and Ecclesiastical Record
    . XXII (41). London: J.G. and F. Rivington: 218–248.
  5. ^ "Preface". The Ecclesiologist. IV (1). Cambridge Camden Society: 2. January 1845.
  6. ^ "The Ecclesiological Society – About". The Ecclesiological Society. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  7. .
  8. ^ Matthew 16:18
  9. .
  10. ^ John Anthony Berry, "Communion Ecclesiology in Theological Ecumenism", Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy 90/2-3 (2009): 92–105.
  11. ^ Lumen gentium § 8
  12. ^ Erickson 1992, pp. 490–508.
  13. ^ Pheidas 2005, pp. 65–82.
  14. ^ Jugie 1935, pp. 5–25.
  15. ^ Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraph 22 and following
  16. ^ a b McGrath, Alister. E. (1998). Historical Theology, An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. p.200.
  17. ^ George, Timothy (1988). Theology of the Reformers. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press. pp. 285.

Sources

Further reading

  • Flanagan, Donal, ed. The Meaning of the Church: Papers of the Maynooth Union Summer School, 1965. Dublin, Ire.: Gill and Son, 1966. N.B.: Mostly concerns the Roman Catholic Church's own ecclesiology, but also includes a lengthy chapter on the Reformed/Presbyterian standpoint, "The Church in Protestant Theology".

External links