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In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the one true church to the exclusion of the others. (1997). 019211655X, Oxford University Press. 019211655X
For many Protestantism Christians, the Christian Church has two components: the church visible, institutions in which "the Bible purely preached and listened to, and the administered according to Christ's institution", as well as the church invisible—all "who are truly saved" (with these beings members of the visible church). (2016). 9781118874431, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118874431 In this understanding of the invisible church, "Christian Church" (or catholic Church) does not refer to a particular Christian denomination, but includes all individuals who have been saved. This is in contrast to the one true church applied to a specific concrete Christian institution, a Christian ecclesiological position maintained by the Catholic Church, the Lutheranism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, Assyrian Church of the East, and the Ancient Church of the East. While holding this view, the Lutheran Churches teach that "there are indeed true Christians in other churches" as "other denominations also preach the Word of God, though mixed with error". The branch theory, which is maintained by some Anglicans, holds that those Churches that have preserved apostolic succession are part of the true Church, though the majority of Anglicanism has historically "followed the major continental Reformers in their doctrine of the true church, identifiable by the authentic ministry of word and sacrament, in their rejection of the jurisdiction of the pope, and in their alliance with the civil authority ('the magistrate')". (2025). 9780191081385, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191081385
Most English translations of the New Testament generally use the word church as a translation of the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (romanized ecclesia), found in the original Greek texts, which generally meant an "assembly" or "congregation". Entry for Strong's #1577 - ἐκκλησία - StudyLight.org. Bible Lexicons - Old / New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary. Retrieved October 20, 2019. This term appears in two verses of the Gospel of Matthew, 24 verses of the Acts of the Apostles, 58 verses of the Pauline epistles (including the earliest instances of its use in relation to a Christian body), two verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, one verse of the Epistle of James, three verses of the Third Epistle of John, and 19 verses of the Book of Revelation. In total, ἐκκλησία appears 114 times in the New Testament, although not every instance is a technical reference to the church. As such it is used for local communities as well as in a universal sense to mean all believers.McKim, Donald K., Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Westminster John Knox Press, 1996 The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity () was by Ignatius of Antioch, in around 100 AD.
The Four Marks of the Church first expressed in the Nicene Creed (381) are that the Church is one, Sacred, catholic (universal), and apostolic (originating from the apostles).Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (London: Banner of Truth, 1949), 572.
The English language word "church" is from the Old English word cirice or Circe, derived from West Germanic *kirika, which in turn comes from the Greek κυριακή kuriakē, meaning "of the Lord" (possessive form of κύριος kurios "ruler" or "lord"). Kuriakē in the sense of "church" is most likely a shortening of κυριακὴ οἰκία kuriakē oikia ("house of the Lord") or ἐκκλησία κυριακή ekklēsia kuriakē ("congregation of the Lord"). Christian churches were sometimes called κυριακόν kuriakon (adjective meaning "of the Lord") in Greek starting in the 4th century, but ekklēsia and βασιλική basilikē were more common.
The word is one of many direct Greek-to-Germanic loans of Christian terminology, via the Goths. The Slavic terms for "church" (Old Church Slavonic црькꙑ crĭky, Bulgarian църква carkva, Russian language церковь cerkov', Slovenian cerkev) are via the Old High German cognate chirihha.
Springing out of Second Temple Judaism, from Christianity's earliest days, Christians accepted non- (Gentiles) without requiring full adoption of Jewish customs (such as circumcision)."Church as an Institution", Dictionary of the History of Ideas, University of Virginia Library [3] The parallels in the Jewish faith are the Proselytes, Godfearers, and Noahide Law; see also Biblical law in Christianity. Some think that conflict with Rabbinic Judaism quickly led to the expulsion of Christians from the synagogues in Jerusalem. An Overview of Christian History, Catholic Resources for Bible, Liturgy, and More [4]
The Church gradually spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, gaining major establishments in cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa.Donald H. Frew, Harran: Last Refuge of Classical Paganism Colorado State University Pueblo From Jesus to Christ: Maps, Archaeology, and Sources: Chronology, PBS, retrieved May 19, 2007 [5] The Roman authorities persecuted it because Christians refused to make sacrifice to the Roman gods, and challenged the imperial cult.Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe, Christianity and the Roman Empire: Reasons for persecution, Ancient History: Romans, BBC Home, retrieved May 10, 2007 [6] The Church was legalized in the Roman empire, and then promoted by Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I in the 4th century as the State Church of the Roman Empire.
Already in the 2nd century, Christians denounced teachings that they saw as heresy, especially Gnosticism but also Montanism. Ignatius of Antioch at the beginning of that century and Irenaeus at the end saw union with the bishops as the test of correct Christian faith. After legalization of the Church in the 4th century, the debate between Arianism and Trinitarianism, with the emperors favouring now one side now the other, was a major controversy.Michael DiMaio, Jr., Robert Frakes, Constantius II (337-361 A.D.), De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families [7]Michael Hines, Constantine and the Christian State, Church History for the Masses [8]
The term ἐκκλησία appears in only two verses of the Gospels, in both cases in the Gospel of Matthew. When Jesus says to Simon Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church", the church is the community instituted by Christ, but in the other passage the church is the local community to which one belongs: "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church."
The term is used much more frequently in other parts of the New Testament, designating, as in the Gospel of Matthew, either an individual local community or all of them collectively. Even passages that do not use the term ἐκκλησία may refer to the church with other expressions, as in the first 14 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, in which ἐκκλησία is totally absent but which repeatedly uses the cognate word κλήτοι ( klētoi, "called").Julienne Côté, Cent mots-clés de la théologie de Paul (), pp. 157ff The church may be referred to also through images traditionally employed in the Bible to speak of the people of God, such as the image of the vineyard used particularly in the Gospel of John.
The New Testament never uses the adjectives "catholic" or "universal" with reference to the Christian Church, but does indicate that the local communities are one church, collectively, that Christians must always seek to be in concord, as the Congregation of God, that the Gospel must extend to the ends of the earth and to all , that the church is open to all peoples and must not be divided, etc.
The first recorded application of "catholic" or "universal" to the church is by Ignatius of Antioch in about 107 in his Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, chapter VIII: "Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
On this date, Theodosius I decreed that only the followers of Trinitarian Christianity were entitled to be referred to as Catholic Christians, while all others were to be considered to be heretics, which was considered illegal. In 385, this new legal situation resulted, in the first case of many to come, in the capital punishment of a heretic, namely Priscillian, condemned to death, with several of his followers, by a civil tribunal for the crime of magic. In the centuries of state-sponsored Christianity that followed, Paganism and heretical Christians were routinely persecuted by the Empire and the many kingdoms and countries that later occupied its place,Ramsay MacMullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Yale University Press, September 23, 1997 but some Germanic peoples remained Arian well into the Middle Ages Christianity Missions and monasticism, Encyclopædia Britannica Online [9] (see also Christendom).
The Church within the Roman Empire was organized under metropolitan sees, with five rising to particular prominence and forming the basis for the Pentarchy proposed by Justinian I. Of these five, one was in the West (Rome) and the rest in the East (Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria).Deno Geanakoplos, A short history of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarch, retrieved May 20, 2007 [10] Even after the split of the Roman Empire the Church remained a relatively united institution (apart from Oriental Orthodoxy and some other groups which separated from the rest of the state-sanctioned Church earlier). The Church came to be a central and defining institution of the Empire, especially in the East or Byzantine Empire, where Constantinople came to be seen as the center of the Christian world, owing in great part to its economic and political power.Arias of Study: Western Art, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin, retrieved May 17, 2007 [11]
Once the Western Empire fell to Germanic incursions in the 5th century, the (Roman) Church became for centuries the primary link to Roman civilization for medieval Western Europe and an important channel of influence in the West for the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, emperors. While, in the West, the so-called orthodoxy Church competed against the Arian Christian and pagan faiths of the Germanic rulers and spread outside what had been the Empire to Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia, and the western Slavs, in the East Christianity spread to the Slavs in what is now Russia, south-central and eastern Europe. CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY, Dictionary of the History of Ideas, University of Virginia Library [12]
Starting in the 7th century, the Islamic Caliphates rose and gradually began to conquer larger and larger areas of the Christendom. Excepting North Africa and Al-Andalus, northern and western Europe escaped largely unscathed by Islamic expansion, in great part because richer Constantinople and its empire acted as a magnet for the onslaught. The challenge presented by the Muslims would help to solidify the religious identity of eastern Christians even as it gradually weakened the Eastern Empire. BYZANTINE ICONOCLASM AND POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE OF ARAB CONQUESTS – AN EMOTIONAL 'GUST', This Century's Review, retrieved May 24, 2007 [13] Even in the Muslim World, the Church survived (e.g., the modern , , and others) albeit at times with great difficulty. The History of the Copts, California Academy of Sciences , retrieved May 24, 2007 History of the Maronite Patriarchate, Opus Libani, retrieved May 24, 2007
As a result of the redevelopment of Western Europe, and the gradual fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to the and Turkish people (helped by Fourth Crusade), the final Fall of Constantinople in 1453 resulted in Eastern scholars fleeing to the West bringing ancient manuscripts, which was a factor in the beginning of the period of the Renaissance there. Rome was seen by the Western Church as Christianity's heartland.Aristeides Papadakis, John Meyendorff, The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy: The Church 1071-1453 A.D., St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, August 1994, , Some Eastern churches even broke with Eastern Orthodoxy and entered into communion with Rome (the "Uniate" Eastern Catholic Churches).
The encyclical of Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quidem, states: "There is only one true, holy, Catholic Church, which is the Apostolic Roman Church. There is only one See founded on Peter by the word of the Lord ... Outside of the Church, no one can hope for life or salvation unless he is excused through ignorance beyond his control."
The papal encyclical Mystici corporis (Pope Pius XII, 1943), expresses the dogmatic ecclesiology of the Catholic Church thus: "If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ—which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church–we shall find no expression more noble, more sublime, or more divine, than the phrase which calls it 'the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ'." The Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution, Lumen gentium (1964), further declares that "the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, ... constituted and organized in the world as a society, Subsistit in in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him". Lumen gentium , 8In The Catholicity of the Church, p. 132, Avery Dulles noted that this document avoided explicitly calling the Church the "Roman" Catholic Church, replacing this term with the equivalent "which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him" and giving in a footnote a reference to two earlier documents in which the word "Roman" is used explicitly.
A 2007 declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith clarified that, in this passage, "'subsistence' means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church, in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth", and acknowledged that grace can be operative within religious communities separated from the Catholic Church due to some "elements of sanctification and truth" within them, but also added "Nevertheless, the word 'subsists' can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe... in the 'one' Church); and this 'one' Church subsists in the Catholic Church."
The Catholic Church teaches that only corporate bodies of Christians led by bishops with valid holy orders can be recognized as "churches" in the proper sense. In Catholic documents, communities without such bishops are formally called ecclesial communities.
Nevertheless, the Lutheran churches teach that "there are indeed true Christians in other churches" as "other denominations also preach the Word of God, though mixed with error"; since the proclamation of the Word of God bears fruit, Lutheran theology accepts the appellation "Church" for other Christian denominations.
Other Baptists do not adhere to Landmarkism and thus hold a broader understanding of what constitutes the true Christian Church, e.g. the American Baptist Churches (which are maintain ecumenism with other Churches). (2004). 9780313057960, Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9780313057960
Individual Christian denominations vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another. Several claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian denominations are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices. Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term "denomination" to describe themselves, to avoid implying equivalency with other churches or denominations.
The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church believe that the term one in the Nicene Creed describes and prescribes a visible institutional and doctrinal unity, not only geographically throughout the world, but also historically throughout history. They see unity as one of the four marks that the Creed attributes to the genuine Church, and the essence of a mark is to be visible. A church whose identity and belief varied from country to country and from age to age would not be "one" in their estimation. As such they see themselves not as a denomination, but as pre-denominational; not as one of many faith communities, but the original and sole true Church.
Many Baptist and Congregationalist theologians accept the local sense as the only valid application of the term church. They strongly reject the notion of a universal (catholic) church. These denominations argue that all uses of the Greek word ekklesia in the New Testament are speaking of either a particular local group or of the notion of "church" in the abstract, and never of a single, worldwide Church.
Many Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Old Catholics, and Independent Catholics view unity as a mark of catholicity, but see the institutional unity of the Catholicity as manifested in the shared apostolic succession of their episcopacies, rather than a shared episcopal hierarchy or rites.
Reformed Christians hold that every person justified by faith in the Gospel committed to the Apostles is a member of "One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church". From this perspective, the real unity and holiness of the whole church established through the Apostles is yet to be revealed; and meanwhile, the extent and peace of the church on earth is imperfectly realized in a visible way.
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod declares that the Christian Church, properly speaking, consists only of those who have faith in the gospel (i.e., the forgiveness of sins which Christ gained for all people), even if they are in church bodies that teach error, but excluding those who do not have such faith, even if they belong to a church or hold a teaching office in it.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium
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