Ecclesiology
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In its early history, one of the Church's primary ecclesiological issues had to do with the status of
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 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
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
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
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 "
Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology
From the
There is disagreement between the
- Position of the Moscow Patriarchate on the problem of primacy in the Universal Church
- First without Equals. A Response to the Text on Primacy of the Moscow Patriarchate, by Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, Metropolitan of Bursa
Ecclesiology of the Church of the East
Historical development of the
Protestant ecclesiology
Magisterial Reformation ecclesiology
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
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,
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
- Great Church
- East–West Schism § Ecclesiological disputes (Eastern Orthodox theology)
- Branch theory (Anglican theology)
For historical Protestant ecclesiology, see
- Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII: Of Ecclesiastical Power
- 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 26: Of the Church
- Theology of John Calvin § Ecclesiology and sacraments
Notes
- Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint), and later adopted by the Christian community to refer to the assembly of believers.[2]
References
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, 8.41 (available online, retrieved 22 May 2008).
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b White, James F. (1979). The Cambridge Movement: the ecclesiologists and the Gothic revival (revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 48–9.
- The British Critic Quarterly Theological Review and Ecclesiastical Record. XXII (41). London: J.G. and F. Rivington: 218–248.
- ^ "Preface". The Ecclesiologist. IV (1). Cambridge Camden Society: 2. January 1845.
- ^ "The Ecclesiological Society – About". The Ecclesiological Society. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
- ISBN 9780631198963.
- ^ Matthew 16:18
- ISBN 0-385-13368-5.
- ^ John Anthony Berry, "Communion Ecclesiology in Theological Ecumenism", Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy 90/2-3 (2009): 92–105.
- ^ Lumen gentium § 8
- ^ Erickson 1992, pp. 490–508.
- ^ Pheidas 2005, pp. 65–82.
- ^ Jugie 1935, pp. 5–25.
- ^ Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraph 22 and following
- ^ a b McGrath, Alister. E. (1998). Historical Theology, An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. p.200.
- ^ George, Timothy (1988). Theology of the Reformers. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press. pp. 285.
Sources
- Erickson, John H. (1992). "The Local Churches and Catholicity: An Orthodox Perspective". The Jurist. 52: 490–508.
- Jugie, Martin (1935). "L'ecclésiologie des Nestoriens". Échos d'Orient. 34 (177): 5–25. .
- Pheidas, Blasios I. (2005). "Papal Primacy and Patriarchal Pentarchy in the Orthodox Tradition". The Petrine Ministry: Catholics and Orthodox in Dialogue. New York: The Newman Press. ISBN 9780809143344.
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
- Ecclesiology journal
- A primer on Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic ecclesiology from an Orthodox perspective
- Eucharist, Bishop, Church: The Unity of the Church in the Divine Eucharist and the Bishop during the First Three Centuries by the Professor Metropolitan of Pergamus and Chairman of the Athens Academy John Zizioulas