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The church invisible, invisible church, mystical church or church mystical, is a Christian theological concept of an "invisible" Christian Church of the elect who are known only to those who are Christian followers of the gospel of Jesus Christ and genuinely saved, in contrast to the "visible church"—that is, the institutional body on earth which preaches the gospel and administers the sacraments. Every member of the invisible church is "saved", while the visible church contains all individuals who are salvation though also having some who are "unsaved". According to this view, Bible passages such as , , and speak about this distinction.
The concept was advocated by St Augustine of Hippo as part of his refutation of the Donatism sect, though he, as other Church Fathers before him, saw the invisible Church and visible Church as one and the same thing, unlike the later Protestant reformers who did not identify the Catholic Church as the true church. He was strongly influenced by the Platonism belief that true reality is invisible and that, if the visible reflects the invisible, it does so only partially and imperfectly (see theory of forms). Wallace M. Alston, The Church of the Living God: A Reformed Perspective (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002 ), p. 53 Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept. Patrick Barnes, The Non-Orthodox: The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church
The concept was insisted upon during the Protestant reformation as a way of distinguishing between the "visible" Catholic Church, which according to the Reformers was corrupt, and those within it who truly believe, as well as true believers within their own denominations. John Calvin described the church invisible as "that which is actually in God's presence, into which no persons are received but those who are children of God by grace of adoption and true members of Christ by sanctification of the Holy Spirit... The includes not only the saints presently living on earth, but all the elect from the beginning of the world." He continues in contrasting this church with the church scattered throughout the world. "In this church there is a very large mixture of hypocrites, who have nothing of Christ but the name and outward appearance..." ( Institutes 4.1.7) Richard Hooker distinguished "between the mystical Church and the visible Church", the former of which is "known only to God." (2002). 9780567087454, A&C Black. ISBN 9780567087454
John Wycliffe, who was a precursor to the reformation, also believed in an invisible church made of the predestinated elect. Another precursor of the reformation, Johann Ruchrat von Wesel believed in a distinction between the visible and invisible church.
Pietism later took this a step further, with its formulation of ecclesiolae in ecclesia ("little churches within the church").
This encyclical rejected two extreme views of the Church:Heribert Mühlen, Una Mystica Persona, München, 1967, p. 51
Although the juridical principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive from the divine constitution given to it by Christ and contribute to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which lifts the Society of Christians far above the whole natural order is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every part of the Church.Pius XII, Mystici corporis Christi, 63
Eastern Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky too characterizes as a "Nestorianism ecclesiology" that which would "divide the Church into distinct beings: on the one hand a and invisible Church, alone Truth and absolute; on the other, the earthly Church (or rather 'the churches'), imperfect and relative". Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976 ) p. 186
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