Four Marks of the Church
The Four Marks of the Church, also known as the Attributes of the Church,[1] describes four distinctive adjectives of traditional Christian ecclesiology as expressed in the Nicene Creed completed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381: "[We believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."[2]
This ecumenical creed is today recited in the
While many doctrines, based on both tradition and different interpretations of the
History
The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in the
In some languages, for example, German, the Latin "catholica" was substituted by "Christian" before the Reformation by some, although this was an anomaly[5] and continues in use by some Protestant churches. Hence, "holy catholic" becomes "holy Christian."[6]
Catholics believe the description "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" to be applicable only to the
The
The
Marks
One
This mark derives from the Pauline epistles, which state that the Church is "one".[11] In 1 Cor. 15:9, Paul the Apostle spoke of himself as having persecuted "the church of God", not just the local church in Jerusalem but the same church that he addresses at the beginning of that letter as "the church of God that is in Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2).[non-primary source needed] In the same letter, he tells Christians: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Cor. 12:27), and declares that, "just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12).
In Eph. 4:5–6, Paul writes: "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Elsewhere, Paul says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). This statement was about Christians as individuals, but it applied to them also as groups, as local church, whether composed mainly of Jewish or Gentile Christians.[11]
Holy
The word holy in this sense means set apart for a special purpose by and for God. The Church is holy because it has been set apart to do God's work, and because God is present in it.[12] Christians understand the holiness of the Church to derive from Christ's holiness.[13]
Catholic
The word catholic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective καθολικός (romanized: katholikos), meaning "general", "universal".[14][15] It is associated with the Greek adverb καθόλου (katholou), meaning "according to the whole", "entirely", or "in general", a combination of the preposition κατά meaning "according to" and the adjective ὅλος meaning "whole".[16][17]
Applied to the Church, the adjective "catholic" means that in the Church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people.[18][19][20] The adjective can be applied not only to the Church as spread throughout the world but also to each local manifestation of the Church, in each of which nothing essential is lacking for it to be the genuine body of Christ.[20][21][22]
For his subjects, Roman Emperor
Apostolic
This describes the Church's foundation and beliefs as rooted and continuing in the living tradition of the apostles of Jesus.[24] The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East each claim to have preserved the original teaching of the apostles. They also have apostolic succession in that their bishops derive their authority through a direct line of laying on of hands from the apostles, a claim that they accept can be made by the other churches in this group. The Anglican Communion, as well as many Lutheran Churches such as the Church of Sweden, likewise teach the doctrine of apostolic succession.[25][26] Other Christian denominations, on the other hand, usually hold that what preserves apostolic continuity is the written word: as Bruce Milne put it, "A church is apostolic as it recognizes in practice the supreme authority of the apostolic scriptures."[27]
See also
- Marks of the Church (Protestantism)
- State church of the Roman Empire
References
- ISBN 9781505103540.
- Banner of Truth. p. 572.
- Broadman Press. p. 34.
It is interesting to note, however, that the Nicene Creed, recited by Catholics in their worship, is also accepted by millions of other Christians as a testimony of their faith—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and members of many of the Reformed Churches.
- ^ Creeds of Christendom
- ISBN 978-0-8006-2740-9
- ISBN 978-0-7586-1217-5
- ^ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the doctrine of the Church Archived August 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-14-014656-3. p. 307
- ^ The Lutheran Witness.
When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places).
- The Lutheran Witness. Vol. 37. pp. 82–83.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-80913039-9), pp. 36–38
- ISBN 978-1858521824.
- ^ Whitehead, Kenneth D. "The Church of the Apostles," This Rock, March 1995. See article at ewtn.com
- ^ "Catholic". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ (cf. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon)
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Etymonline.com. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
- ^ "On Being Catholic Archived 2011-02-22 at the Wayback Machine", by Claire Anderson M.Div.
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 830-856 Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ NULL (2013-10-09). "On the Catholicity of the Church". ZENIT - English. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
- ^ a b Hopko, Thomas. "The Orthodox Faith". oca.org. Orthodox Church in America. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ISBN 9780567033376. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ^ Second Vatican Council. "Decree Concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Christus Dominus, 11". Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-19501293-4), p. 22
- ^ Cf. also an Armenian statement, a Roman Catholic statement.
- ISBN 978-0810839458. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
In addition to the primary understanding of succession, the Lutheran confessions do express openness, however, to the continuation of the succession of bishops. This is a narrower understanding of apostolic succession, to be affirmed under the condition that the bishops support the Gospel and are ready to ordain evangelical preachers. This form of succession, for example, was continued by the Church of Sweden (which included Finland) at the time of the Reformation.
- ISBN 978-0664224165. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
In Sweden the apostolic succession was preserved because the Catholic bishops were allowed to stay in office, but they had to approve changes in the ceremonies.
- ^ Bruce Milne, "Know the Truth" (2nd edition). (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 1998), 271.
Further reading
- The Symbol of Faith by Father Thomas Hopko
- Four Marks of the Church by Kenneth D. Whitehead
- The Four Marks of the Church by Fr. William Saunders
- Marks of the Church by Loyola Press