The Body of Christ in Mission: Paul’s Ecclesiology and the Role of the Church in Mission

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 402-415
Author(s):  
Susann Liubinskas
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Church

scholarly journals Die karakter van die kerk in perspektief van huidige teologiese besinning

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
P. C. Potgieter
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church ◽  
Apostolic Community

The character of the church - a perspective on current theological thought The role of the church in society is currently much focused upon in theological thought. The author analyses various characteristics of the church with reference to views of well known theologians. As community of faith it is the body of Christ revealed very visibly in the world representing the kingdom of God. For that very reason the idea of a national church is unacceptable. The church is one, catholic and apostolic community, even particularly in its visible form. Though Scripture gives no clear guidelines on the structure of the church, there are many general biblical norms to be considered in ecclesiastical law and government.

Wolfhart Pannenberg

2018 ◽  
pp. 486-504
Author(s):  
Friedericke Nuessel
Keyword(s):  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Wolfhart Pannenberg ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This chapter describes the development of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s ecclesiology in his early work and explores his fully developed ecclesiology in the Systematic Theology of 1993. It analyses the fundamental role of the church to be a sign and foretaste of the kingdom of God. This involves a constitutive self-distinction of the church from any political order or civil state on the one hand and from the future kingdom of God on the other. Moreover, the chapter emphasizes the simultaneity of individual salvation and incorporation into the church as the body of Christ in Pannenberg, and demonstrates the ecclesiological task to overcome the divisions between churches in order to witness to the unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity of the church.

Head and Members

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the role of the bishops of Rome, or popes, as ‘vicars of St Peter’, and also as ‘vicars of Christ’. St Paul taught that the Church was the body of Christ. If the Church was a body, then clearly, as John Alcock, bishop of Ely, declared in 1497, ‘in every realm of Christianity, the head thereof is Christ’. The chapter first considers what ordinary English people thought about popes and the papacy before discussing the issue of royal taxation of the clergy and the appointment of clergy to English benefices. It then explores lines of demarcation between common law and canon law, along with the arrest, imprisonment and death of a merchant named Richard Hunne, who was accused of heresy. It also looks at the issue of reforming the Church of England and people.

Pro-Nicene prosopology and the church in Augustine's preaching on John 3:13

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-264
Author(s):  
Adam Ployd
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Complex Subject

AbstractJohn 3:13 presents a grammatical and theological problem for Augustine. If the only one who ascends to heaven is the one who descended, namely Christ, then what becomes of the Christian life of ascent? To unpack Augustine's solution to this problem, this article explores his use of John 3:13 in his anti-Donatist sermons of 406–7. Here Augustine uses the grammatical method of prosopological exegesis both to identify and to solve the problem of Christ's solo ascent. Prosopology asks of a text, ‘Who is speaking? To whom is he speaking? And about whom is he speaking?’ in order to parse the sometimes ambiguous personae within a dramatic scene. Through this method, Augustine affirms that Christ is indeed speaking about himself alone, but the reflexive subject of Christ includes the church who is his body. The Christian life of ascent to God requires that we become participants in the subject of Christ's ‘I’. Building on the work of ‘New Canon’ Augustine scholarship, I argue that this use of John 3:13 to espouse the unity of the church in the body of Christ is founded upon a pro-Nicene understanding of the revelatory and epistemological role of the Son. The ability of Christ fully to reveal the Father is a central tenet of Latin pro-Nicene refutations of homoian christologies, and this revelation of the Father's Word through Christ's incarnation is accomplished in our union with that Word through his body. Based on this pro-Nicene affirmation of epistemological salvation through Christ, Augustine then uses John 3:13 to condemn the Donatists for damning themselves by separating from the body of Christ. The oneness of the ecclesial body of Christ is predicated upon the oneness of Christ himself because it is into his complex subject that we are incorporated. Separation from that unity is separation from the singular grammatical subject who ascends as Christ to the Father. Thus, Augustine's grammatical practice of prosopological exegesis to solve the problem of John 3:13 connects the pro-Nicene affirmation of Christ's revelation of the Father to an anti-Donatist defence of the necessary unity of the church. This should encourage us to consider further the ways in which pro-Nicene principles help to shape Augustine's vision of the church.

scholarly journals THE THEOLOGICAL DILEMMA VIZ-A-VIS THE MORAL OPTIONS FOR RELEVANT AND PRACTICAL MINISTRY TODAY: LESSONS FOR THE ZIMBABWE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sifiso Mpofu
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Practical Ministry ◽  
Christian Leaders ◽  
The Church

There are many misconceptions about the role of the church in society. This is because the church is neither a political institution nor a social organisation but a mystery of grace. The church can best be defined or understood in terms of its mission or its work. This article will explore the mission and work of the Christian church; specifically the church in Zimbabwe. One cannot talk about the Christian church without reflecting on Jesus Christ’s mission. The church is the body of Christ, the true representative of the broken body of Jesus Christ. Paradoxically, while church leaders say that they are concerned about the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed, they seem not to fight against harmful socio- economic and political structures that dehumanise many of God’s creation. The church, as God’s compass to direct humanity for the total good of all creation, should always advocate in favour of peace and social justice. Christian leaders have a moral and social responsibility in their proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in an environment which is characterised by despondency, uncertainty and fear. This paper identifies moments of prophetic resistance to social evil. It is to be noted that such a prophetic dimension is an enduring reality of the life of an authentic church, despite the complex (and at times compromising) relationship between church and state. This paper proposes possibilities for a new paradigm shift in Christian ministry with a view to toward a rebirth of a socially conscious church within the established platform of Christian ministry.

scholarly journals The Theology of Hiddenness: J. L. Schellenberg, Divine Hiddenness, and the Role of Theology

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Marek Dobrzeniecki ◽  
Derek King
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Divine Hiddenness ◽  
Doctrine Of The Church ◽  
Hiddenness Of God ◽  
The Church

The paper explores Pascal’s idea according to which the teachings of the Church assume the hiddenness of God, and, hence, there is nothing surprising in the fact of the occurrence of nonresistant nonbelief. In order to show it the paper invokes the doctrines of the Incarnation, the Church as the Body of Christ, and the Original Sin. The first one indicates that there could be greater than nonbelief obstacle in forming interpersonal bonds with God, namely the ontological chasm between him and human persons. The assumption of the human nature by the Son of God could be seen as a cure for this problem. The doctrine of the Church shows it as an end in itself, and in order for the Church to have meaning and to exist there has to be nonbelief in the world. Finally, the dogma of the Original Sin shows that there is no category of purely nonresistant nonbelief. The paper also addresses Schellenberg’s “accommodationist strategy” from the perspective of the Christian theology and in the last part it investigates what should be the influence of the fact of the hiddenness on theology’s take on the divine revelation.

La metáfora de la 'ecclesia mater' en la literatura antidonatista

Augustinus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Paola Marone ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
African Theology ◽  
The Church

The modern scholars have studied the maternity of the Church independently from the anti-Donatist literature. But a careful study of the anti-Donatist documents reveals many interesting elements. According to Optatus and Augustine the notion of mother was abscribed to all believers, because the body of Christ was formed of all those the Church bore as children through the baptism. According to both African bishops also the donatists gave a valid baptism, but only Augustine demonstrated how the salvation could be found outside of the viscera Ecclesiae. Then this article deals with the image of the Ecclesia mater as illustrated in the Adversus Donatistas of Optatus published in answer to the donatist bishop Parmenianus and in all that Augustine penned against the schismatics (Tractatus, Sermones, Epistulae). By doing so, it presents a picture of the African theology of the fourth century.

What is Distinctive about Methodist Ecclesiology? A Response to Papers by Miriam Haar, Justus Hunter and Robert Martin

Ecclesiology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74
Author(s):  
Kenneth Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Church

Does Methodism want a distinctive ecclesiology? British Methodism assumes its ecclesiology from the Church of England which explains its lack of ecclesiological thinking, its genuine desire for reunification, and indeed its focus on ecclesia in actu. But there can be no ecclesia in actu apart from ecclesia per se. Being and doing are one in God. The Church, grounded in the dynamic being of God in Trinity, celebrates in the action of the Eucharist the wholeness of God’s presence with his world. Proleptically the Church includes the whole of creation and all people. Hence, when as the Body of Christ we pray the Our Father with our Lord, we pray on behalf of all, not just for ourselves. But what then do we mean by apostolicity? Perhaps in Methodism we would be well occupied exploring more keenly with the Roman Catholic Church what we each mean by being a society within the church. Outler may have been right when he opined that Methodism needed a Catholic Church within which to be church.

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