이 정석 교수의 신학 문답 Q&A
ENGLISH WRITINGS
DOCTRINE OF TRINITY | SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY | SPECIAL LECTURES
1. The Nature and Importance of Ecclesiology
(i) Ecclesiology (ekklesia+logia) as an academic discipline is primarily a study of the church: what it is, how it is organized, what it does, and what benefits it provides.
(ii) However, as it is a study based on the Christian faith that the church is the Body of Christ who is still alive and rules the church, it also discusses about her relationship with Jesus Christ and his activity with our present world through His own Church consisting of his own people under the guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit.
(iii) Ecclesiology is the self-searching and self-reflective theological project to be and do the genuine church of Jesus Christ. It deals with the particular church, that is, the church of Jesus Christ established by Jesus Christ Himself upon His redeeming work of crucifixion and resurrection: "…I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."(Matt 16.18-19) The preceding and following context shows that this church is founded on His crucifixion and resurrection (vv. 13-17, 20-21). Therefore, the authentic ecclesiology is based on the authentic Christology and soteriology, as seen in the order of systematic theology. As Jürgen Moltmann emphasized, "every statement about the church will be a statement about Christ. Every statement about Christ also implies a statement about the church," and "Thus eccesiology can only be developed from Christology, as its consequence and in correspondence with it."
(iv) Ecclesiology is the definitive and directive belief of the Christianity in practice, and all the beliefs and acts of the Christian community depend on ecclesiology. Therefore, misunderstanding of the church results in a grave failure to be and do a genuine Christian church. It is true not only collectively but also individually.
2. The Biblical and Theological Definition of the Church
(i) The words "Church, Kirche, Kerk, or Kirk" are derived from kuriake, i.e., what belong to the kurioj, and thus it identifies the church as the belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the biblical words of the church are ekklesia (115 times) and sunagwge (57 times), which correspond with the OT words of lh"q" and hd"[e. Ekklesia and qahalboth are derived from the verbs meaning "call or summon (kalew, lh;q"-ar'q')", while both synagoge and edah from the verbs meaning "meet or gather (sunagw, d[;y")." And, ekklesia gradually became the technical term for the Christian church, while synagoge for the Jewish congregation.
(ii) In the Scripture, there are many images of the church such as the body of Christ (Eph 1.22-23, 1Cor 12.12-27, 4.15-16, Col 1.18, 2.9-10, 19), the people of God (2Cor 6.16, 1Pet 2.9-10), the temple of God (1Cor 3.16-17, Eph 2.21-22, 1Pet 2.5), the bride of Christ (Eph 5.23-32, 2Cor 11.2), the househod of God (1Tim 3.15, 5.1-2, 2Cor 6.18, Mt 12.50, Jn 1.12), the community of the saints (1Cor 1.2), the new creation (2Cor 5.17) and etc. In Images of the Church in the New Testament, Paul Minear found 96 images of the church in the New Testament. All those images represent and describe the rich and dynamic aspects of the church.
(iii) The general sense of the church as the people of God has existed from the Eden and in Israel, but the Christian concept of the church denotes particularly the Church of Jesus Christ. Before his redemptive death and ascension, he declared his plan to establish his own glorious and powerful church in Mt 16, and provided the system of sacraments and discipline as well as the task of gathering, education, and mission (Mt 18.15-20, 26.26-29, 28.18-20). Moreover, the Holy Spirit was promised to send for the guidance and empowering of the church (Jn 14.16-18, 26).
(iv) The essential nature of the church is in its relationship with its Lord and Head, i.e., Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Body of Christ is the primary definition of the church. The Head and Body consist the church, and therefore the church is totus Christus (Augustine). No head without its body, and no body without its head. As Karl Barth described, the church is "the earthly-historical form of existence of Jesus Christ Himself", while "the heavenly-historical form of His existence" is at the right hand of God now (IV/1, 661). As the body is the organ of action commanded by its head, the church as his body is demanded the perfect obedience to its Head and Lord. As the result, the church is a mission-ary church. Rather than "the church ‘has’ a mission…the mission of Christ creates its own church."(Moltmann,10)
(v) The Reformers distinguished the church into the visible and invisible church. Karl Barth criticized the concept of invisible church as "eccesiological Docetism" and providing a refuge for the negligence of communion with the other churches (IV/1, 653-4). Also, there are useful distinctions between militant and triumphant church, and organism and institution. Mother concept (mater fidelium) was popularly accepted, for her bearing and nourishing believers.
(vi) In the divided groups of the church, the church has been defined by their own terms: "the community of the elect"(Westminster Confession 25.1), "the reconciling community"(1967 Confession, PCUSA), "assembly of those who are saved"(Belgic Confession 28), "the congregation of the saints and true believers"(Augsburg Confession 8), "the community of the New Covenant"(Episcopal Catechism), "congregation of faithful men"(Methodist Confession 13), "autonomous local congregation of baptized believers"(Southern Baptist Confession 6), "the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit"(Assemblies of God, Statement of True Faith 10), "the assembly of God’s chosen people"(Orthodox Faith), "the sacrament of union with God, the sacrament of the unity with the whole of the human race"(Vatican II, The Constitution on the Church 2).
(vii) In the present age, the secularization of the western churches, the rise of non-western churches, the emergence of new congregational models, the ecumenical movement, and feminist-liberation theology made the church to fundamentally re-think about the church. So, ‘ecclesiological renaissance’ happened and produced a great quantity of ecclesiological discussions. Also in this post-modern and post-denominational era, the denominational ecclesiologies are losing its control. Veli-Matti Karkkainen expects that "the future of Christian theology lies in global sensitivity."(232)
(viii) Avery Dulles identified five models of the church: institution of salvation, intimate community of the Spirit, sacrament of salvation, herald of Good News, and servant of the Servant Lord.
3. The Attributes and Marks of the Church
(i) The Nicene Creed, which is the first official ecumenical creed, confessed una, sancta, catholica et apostolica ecclesia (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church), and it has been ecumenically accepted as the four essential attributes of the church: unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. Moltmann understood that the four marks of the church reflect the four functions of Christ for it is His body: "uniting, sanctifying, comprehensive and commissioning lordship of Christ"(338).
(ii) The concept of una ecclesia is biblically grounded and theologically necessary. Because there is only "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all", "one hope", one calling, "one Spirit", and most of all one Head, there should be only "one body", i.e., one church (Eph 4.4-6). Even though there is a great variety and difference in the early churches, any division except heresy was unanimously prohibited and condemned by the Lord and all the apostles. And, the church was commanded to "make every effort to keep the unity" (4.3). Jesus set the example of prayer for unity: "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and loved them as you have loved me." (Jn 17.23) However, the church of Christ is now divided into a great number of
competing and even hostile sects with their own system of laws, confessions, and ideologized theologies, and further into over 9000 denominations in the world. To keep the unity of the church, humility of mutual respect and love of contextual understanding are necessary, while self-pride of superiority complex and self-centered denial of contextual diversity inevitably result in the separation of the church. As the Orthodox Church explains, "The churches founded by the Apostles themselves include the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome" and "Each of these churches is independent in administration, but, with the exception of the Church of Rome, which finally separated from the others in the year 1054, all are united in faith, doctrine, Apostolic tradition, sacrament, liturgies, and services." (Orthodox Catechism) The superiority claim of the Roman bishop and catholicity claim of a local bishopric destroyed the brotherly equality of the churches under the one Head, and the church started her first division. Still, the Roman ‘Catholic’ Church maintains the same position, i.e., "the hierarchy which Christ established in his Church… Christ formed his Apostles ‘after the manner of college,’ and over this college he placed Peter…until the end of the world… The Pope is the foundation of unity" (Vatican II, The Constitution on the Church 6), and "all Churches are entrusted to the supreme pastoral care of the Roman Pontiff as the successor of Saint Peter… the Eastern churches… separated from Catholic unity." (The Decree on the Eastern Churches 2-3) Even though their claim has some ground in Mt 16.17-19, Jn 21.15-17, the New Testament as a whole does not recognize his superiority under whom all the other apostles should be subordinated, and also the perennial successive leadership has no biblical ground, but clearly teaches that the church is founded on the totality and diversity of the apostles.
The Protestant also failed to keep the unity, because they did not tolerate differences in the non-essential matters such as the Eucharistic views or church polity system. Reformer like Calvin condemned separation: "separation from the church is the denial of God and Christ."(Inst, IV.i.10) He distinguished between the necessary and non-essential, the fundamental and non-fundamental articles of belief: "Some are so necessary…such one: God is one, Christ is God and the Son of God; our salvation rests in God’s mercy; and the like… other articles of doctrine disputed which still do not break the unity of faith." And, he prohibited the separation because of the difference in the nonessential matters: "a difference of opinion over these nonessential matters should in no wise be the basis of schism among Christians." (IV.i.12) The Scripture permits adiaphora and the freedom of conscience (Rom 14), and it safeguarded the unity of the early church. However, church separation became very popular and even biblically justified as dogmatism and social collective egoism has deepened and spread throughout the churches. But, the crisis consciousness was raised by the social change in the western churches, as well as the revival and mission movement in the 18-19th C made the divided churches to seek unity in the 20th C. As a result, WCC was organized in 1948, and the reconciliatory actions were taken between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches also.
However, schismatic and heretic are distinguished: "heretics corrupt the sincerity of the faith with false dogmas, but schismatics, while sometimes even of the same faith, break the bond of fellowship, though both "heresies and schisms arise because men return not to the Source of truth, seek not the Head, keep not the teaching of the Heavenly Master", as Cyprian observed."(Inst, IV.ii.5) Heresy (ai'resij) is the arbitrary choice of opinion that contradicts against the essential doctrine of the ecumenical Christian faith, and they separate from the church to form their own group with claiming their exclusive truthfulness. The apostles gave a warning to distance from these "destructive heresies" (2Pet 2.1, Tit 3.10, Gal 5.20), who denies the essential belief in Jesus Christ such as his incarnation, the Sonship of God, physical resurrection, and Parousia (Col 2.8-23, 1Jn 4.2-3, 2Jn 7, 2Pet 2.1). They are identified with the false prophet and even Anti-Christ.
(iii) The church is destined to be sancta ecclesia, because "he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (Eph 1.4) As the bride of Christ, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any blemish, but holy and blameless." (5.25-27) The church is the liberated community from sinful desires and the old way of life, and therefore this free community is the holy community. Even though the holiness of the church is "not in itself but in Christ"(Moltmann), and "because and in the fact that He, the Head, is holy", and therefore "only the gift of the Holy Spirit"(Barth), it should not be an excuse not to obey the command to be holy and make progress in the sanctification of the church. To Paul, the church is the community of the sanctified(h`giasme,noi,,), that is, comunicatio sanctorum: "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy"(Cor 1.2). The church is the object of sanctification, not a Christian individually, because a Christian has no separate identity without being related and identified with the Lord and His Body. The word ‘saint, a`gi,oj’ is never used as singular to denote an individual in the New Testament but always a collective ‘saints, a`gi,oi’. Therefore, the concept of evkklhsi,a and sanctification are inseparable, and the church is the community of sanctification, i.e., the locus where the reality of sanctification happens. The church is the moral community, and therefore the moral standard of the church should be always higher than the world. Also, the holiness of the church is necessary to be the useful and persuasive instrument to sanctify the world and successfully fight down and win over the power of sin and darkness.
(iv) The church of Christ includes all human beings in race, people, nation, region, language, culture, sex, age, and all the other social grouping, and therefore catholica ecclesia. The word ‘catholic’ was derived from kaq , o>lou→ kaqolikoj, meaning wholeness without any exclusion. The Old Testament church was a national assembly which was exclusive to the Gentiles, i.e., all the other peoples in the world, as well as exclusive even to the women, children and handicapped of their own people. As a result of the human fall, the human race was endlessly divided into innumerable groups of self-interest and the strong group discriminated and oppressed the weaker groups by the beastly law of jungle. Christ came to the world to unite all the divided and hostile groups of the human race in Him (Eph 1.10, 22): "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."(Eph 2.14-16) Christ, the Reconciler of the world, gave his Body to continue the ministry of reconciliation and restoration, and the new self who are free from all the collective egoism and social group identity is created to be Christ’s ambassador of reconciliation.
2Cor 5.15-20
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Therefore, the catholicity of the church is not a matter of external or organizational inclusiveness but that of heart and attitude, as Miroslav Volf expressed as "the openness to all other churches". Therefore, globalization and catholicity may not be confused. The church is the model community of reconciliation, harmony and love, and therefore the eschatological community. So, the church needs discipline and training to adjust to this eternal and ideal community without any discrimination.
(v) The church of Christ has the particular origin and unique identity, not a voluntary or arbitrary organization. The apostles of Christ, the Head of the church, are the foundation and pillar of the church, for it is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with which Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone"(Eph 2.20) and they are the "pillars" of the church(Gal 2.9). Therefore, the church of Christ is apostolica ecclesia. There is no authentic church of Christ without through His apostles. Any church needs an historical connection and bond with the apostolic church to be authentic and true. No church has the right or freedom to create their own tradition in parallel with the apostolic tradition, which is only one orthodox and authentic tradition, i.e., the tradition of the church, to which all the sectarian church traditions are subordinated. And, the apostolic tradition is no other than the Holy Scripture. Therefore, when the Roman church positioned their tradition as equal with the apostolic Scripture, Reformers resisted with proclaiming sola Scriptura. The church needs to continually reflect herself not to be derailed from the apostolic tradition by practicing semper reformanda (continual reformation).
However, it does not mean that the church should maintain the exactly same form of the church as the apostolic church in the 1st C. Apostolicity is not past-oriented but future-oriented because the Holy Spirit leads the church creatively and dynamically in the ever-changing world. Of course, it does not mean that the Holy Spirit may lead the church of Christ in the different direction than that of its Head. The unity of Trinitarian persons guarantees the unity of development. The goal and direction of the church was already given by Christ and explained by His apostles, and the Holy Spirit faithfully helps the church to achieve the goal. However, the church has historically misunderstood the goals of the church and often resisted to follow the new leading of the Spirit. Therefore, it is essential for the church to clearly understand the goals of the church, and it needs the redemptive-historical perspective for the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, it protects the church from the corruption, degeneration, secularization, and privatization. The church may not change their essential belief and morality from the apostolic teaching, even though in the non-essential matters it may creatively adjust to their own culture and context. So, the liberalization of the church is a departure from its apostolicity. Under the influence of the anti-Christian Enlightenment movement, Liberal theology arose in the old and new form, and it attempts to fundamentally change the church to conform to the spirit of the age (Zeitgeist).
(vi) The Reformers suggested a number of signs of the true church (notae verae ecclesiae) to distinguish the true church from the false one. Calvin offered two distinguishing marks: "Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacrament administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists."(Inst, IV.i.9) Later, more signs were added. However, these marks are functional rather than essential.
4. Contemporary Trends in Ecclesiology
(i) Christological ecclesiology is the major trend today. Against the Liberal, political, and sectarian development of ecclesiology, Karl Barth initiated a theological awakening that Christ is the Head and Lord of the church, as clearly seen in the Barmen Declaration, and fundamentally reformulated the whole ecclesiology as a continuation and application of Christology. This approach became dominant in the contemporary ecclesiology. However, the neo-liberal theologies, especially process theology and religious pluralism attempt to degrade the church into a natural religious organization and change the head of the church from Christ to the general God by making Christ anonymous.
(ii) Missionary eccesiology was initiated by missiologist Lesslie Newbigin in his small but powerful book The Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the Church, and this mission-oriented ecclesiology based on the Great Commission of the Lord (Mt 28.19-20). This missionary consciousness awakened in the 19th C has spread in the 20th C in the new evangelical emphasis in mission and evangelism. Domestically, this initiative developed the missional ecclesiology. Also, WCC’s concept of missio Dei expanded the mission of the church into its social dimension.
(iii) Communion(koinonia) ecclesiology was initiated by Hendrik Kraemer’s theology of the laity which attempted to restore the apostolic concept of the church as communio sanctorumand the Reformed concept of the priesthood of all believers. Clergy and officer-centered ecclesiology is now under the shift to the dynamic and holistic concept of the gift-centered ecclesiology in the servant model. Pneumatological or charismatic ecclesiology with its emphasis in the gift-sharing, and the Trinitarian model of equal and harmonious church are in this trend. It results in the transformation of worship and church structure.
(iv) Political ecclesiology was initiated by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Jürgen Moltmann, who insists that "a missionary church cannot be apolitical." Church’s political failure has blocked and jeopardized the mission of the church. Liberation theology defined the church as that of the poor and the oppressed, and this grass root ecclesiology has extended to every group under social and political oppression and developed black ecclesiology, feminist ecclesiology, and etc., and even ecological ecclesiology.
(v) Ecumenical ecclesiology was primarily developed by WCC as the need of church unity has increased by the internal and external pressure, but it was strongly resisted by the non-WCC churches for its progressive leadership. In the post-colonial world order, the global ecclesiology arises as the center of the church moves from the west.