Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale B. Martin
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Kingdom Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Postmodern Theology ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

Chapter 7 begins by exploring what it means when Christians confess to “believe in the church. It proceeds by differentiating the church from the “kingdom of God” and comparing it to similar terms, such as the “household of God,” and the “body of Christ.” The gender of the church is explored, with arguments that Christians think of the church as male, female, neuter, androgynous, or intersexed. The English word “church” is a translation of the ancient Greek ekklêsia, a political term referring to the citizen assembly that made final decisions by democratic procedures in the ancient city. Thus the ancient political meanings of ekklesia, which included freedom, equality, and democracy, should inform postmodern theology and practice in Christian churches and denominations. Portraits of the church in the New Testament, however, should encourage Christians to reject modernist ideologies of family, nationalism, and capitalism. While avoiding Christian supersessionism over Judaism, Christians today must also avoid the oppressive politics of some forms of Zionism. Christians may also experience the church as a refuge in a sometimes hostile world. Finally, the book concludes with the church as a sacrament of eschatological hope for the future, an expectation of the coming kingdom of God.

scholarly journals The Church as the Body of Christ

1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (86) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. J. Van Rensburg
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

The significance of the metaphor in 1 Cor 12 : 27 for the assessment of the New Testament teaching on the unity of 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.

Die kerk in die Nuwe Testament

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M.M. Pelser
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church

The church in the New Testament The article explores the documents of the New Testament in search of the concept church' and finds that,  in a nutshell, the answers are as follows: the  Spirit-controlled, charismatic togetherness of people 'in Christ' (Paul); cross-bearing followers of Jesus (Mk); the people of God on their way through history (Lk-Ac); the faithful locked in battle with Satanic powers, but with the expectation of occupying the heavenly Jerusalem (Rv); the  community with which Christ became solidary, and which is heading for its heavenly place of rest (Reb); the poor but pious community, putting their faith into practice (Ja); the body of Christ in which his universal reign can be experienced (Col); the sphere in which salvation is  realized (Eph); disciples following Jesus as God-with us, experiencing the  rift between synagogue and church (Mt); friends and confidants of Christ, living at loggerheads with the synagogue (In); the household of God, governed by householders (Pastorals); and the socia-ly ostracized elect of God whose way of life should be a demonstration of their otherness as Christians (1 Pt).

scholarly journals Theology disrupted: Doing theology with children in African contexts

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elijah Mahlangu
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Family ◽  
New Development ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Church

The thrust of this article is an attempt to respond to the question whether we can read and interpret the bible in Africa from the child theology vantage point. The author’s answer is in the affirmative in two ways: Firstly, it is that the majority of children in Africa are facing abuses of unprecedented proportions. Historically and traditionally, African scholars always read and interpreted the bible with African lenses. The African bible critic and exegete should be part of the church, the body of Christ which ought to be a lotus of healing. Theologising in the context of the crisis of the ‘child’ in Africa is fairly a new development and needs to be aggressively pursued. The second aspect of this author’s response is that when Christianity entered the Graeco-Roman as well the Jewish milieu, it used the family symbolism such as father, brothers, love, house of God, children of God, and so on. The New Testament authors therefore used family as reality and metaphor to proclaim the gospel. The African theologian, critic and exegete, is therefore in this article challenged to make a significant contribution using the African context in that, ‘… the African concept of child, family and community appears to be closer to ecclesiology than the Western concepts’.

scholarly journals A Baptismal Theology of Accountability

2021 ◽  
pp. 095394682110097
Author(s):  
Andrew Torrance
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Church ◽  
Do So

This article addresses the question of what it means to be accountable to God based on a baptismal theology that we find in the New Testament. It argues that various passages in the New Testament lead us to the view that we are accountable to God in Christ. Such a view is not straightforward, and so much of this article will be spent unpacking what this could mean. To do so, I elaborate on what it means for God to create humanity to find fulfilment in and through Christ. This leads me to argue that humans experience fulfilment in and through the body of Christ into which baptism initiates a person. It is by participating and finding belonging in the life of the Church that humans can begin to discover what it means to be accountable to God in Christ, and, in so doing, form the virtue of accountability.

The Scriptures and Their Interpretation

2015 ◽  
pp. 41-54
Author(s):  
Matthew Levering
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
Dei Verbum ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Written Word ◽  
The Church

Reflection on God’s written word begins in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here the written text finds its home in Israel’s liturgical practice. This is also the case in the New Testament, but here Jesus embodies, performs, and fulfils the Scriptures. In the earliest life of the Body of Christ, Scripture is again read within the life of the Christ-filled community and is ordered towards the union of the believer with Christ. The second half of this essay shows that the same perspective shapes Vatican II’s Dei Verbum. The purpose of tradition and Scripture is to function as a mirror in which the Church may contemplate God and learn to live in holiness, and the interpretation and performance of Scripture enact the conversation of God with the Son’s beloved spouse.

scholarly journals Tinjauan Etis Terhadap Gereja-gereja Yang Menetapkan Jemaat Memberi Iuran Kepada

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Marlon Butarbutar ◽  
Sri Wahyuni Kusradi
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Physical Form ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Church

Gereja hadir dalam dunia ini sebenarnya adalah untuk memuji dan memuliakan Tuhan. Oleh sebab itu, maka gereja mempunyai tugas untuk menjadikan semua bangsa sebagai murid Tuhan Yesus (Mat. 28: 18-20). Dimana yang dipakai Tuhan sebagai alat dalam melakukan dan melaksanakan akan kehendak-Nya adalah melalui gereja. Baik gereja sebagai tubuh Kristus yang di dalam Perjanjian Baru adalah umat, orang-orang yang dipanggil oleh Tuhan untuk keluar dari kegelapan dan masuk dalam terang-Nya untuk menjadi saksi Kristus maupun gereja dalam bentuk fisik, maksudnya adalah gereja sebagai gedung atau tempat yang dipakai orang-orang percaya untuk bersekutu dalam memuji dan memuliakan Tuhan. Melihat hal tersebut maka, titik utama gereja ada dan hadir adalah hanya untuk kemuliaan Tuhan. Salah satu ketentuan kewajiban jemaat yang ada dalam gereja adalah ”setiap jemaat, harus membayar persembahan bulanan setiap bulan kepada gereja”. Apabila tidak dilunasi, konsekuensinya adalah apabila ada kejadian dalam jemaat tersebut, seperti: baptisan, pemberkatan nikah. Itu semuanya tidak akan terlaksana, sebelum kewajiban tersebut terlunasi. Jadi, ketentuan ini bukan hanya mengikat jemaat untuk datang bersekutu atau beribadah dan membuat jemaat terikat pada gereja tersebut dan tidak mudah untuk pindah gereja, melainkan dalam tindakannya sudah ada sikap memaksa jemaat untuk membayar kewajiban kepada gereja. Berdasarkan hal di atas terlihat jelas bahwa jemaat memberi kepada gereja bukan dengan ketulusan dan sukacita. Tetapi memberi dengan keterpaksaan dan adanya sanksi atau konsekuensi bagi jemaat yang tidak memberikan persembahan bulanan terhadap gereja. Ini sangat mendorong penulis untuk meneliti sehingga menjadi suatu pertimbangan bagi gereja yang memberi kewajiban jemaat membayar iuran kepada gereja.     The church present in this world is actually to praise and glorify God. Therefore, the church has a duty to make all nations disciples of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 28: 18-20). Where God uses as a tool in doing and carrying out His will is through the church. Both the church as the body of Christ in the New Testament are people, people who are called by God to come out of the darkness and enter into His light to be witnesses of Christ and the church in physical form, meaning the church as a building or place used by people believers to fellowship in praising and glorifying God. Seeing this, the main point of the church being and present is only for the glory of God. One of the provisions of the congregation's obligations in the church is "every church, must pay monthly offerings every month to the church". If not paid, the consequence is if there is an incident in the church, such as: baptism, marriage blessing. That all will not be realized, before the obligation is paid. So, this provision does not only bind the congregation to come to fellowship or worship and make the congregation bound to the church and it is not easy to move the church, but in its action there is already an attitude of forcing the congregation to pay obligations to the church. Based on the above it is clear that the congregation gave to the church not with sincerity and joy. But giving with force and the existence of sanctions or consequences for congregations who do not provide monthly offerings to the church. This strongly encourages the writer to examine so that it becomes a consideration for the church which gives the congregation an obligation to pay contributions to the church.

scholarly journals Investigating the Holy Eucharist and the term ‘people of God’ according to the Eastern Orthodox Church

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
The Church

This article unpacks aspects of the Eucharist and how it is understood in various churches using a literature study methodology. It also looks at the notion of the “people of God’. The Greek word εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), means "thanksgiving", appears fifteen times in the New Testament and is a critical aspect of the Christian faith. The weekly celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday’s is an requisite activity of the Church because the Eucharist establishes the Church as the Body of Christ. The Eucharistic celebration is also known as the Divine Liturgy and is believed to impart the actual Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful. In the act of communion, the entire Church, those past, present, and even forthcoming are unified in eternity. It is the source of her life, the superlative act of her thanksgiving and of her sacrifice of praise to the creator God. The Holy Eucharist is the very core of Christian life, and the means by which each believer is nourished by God's grace and tender mercy. At the Divine Liturgy, the Church is continuously changed from a human community into the Body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the holy People of God.

The Church as The Body of Christ in The Gospel of Matthew

1958 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan O. Via
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

Although it is evident to every student of the New Testament that Matthew has a special interest in the Church, the use of the term ‘body of Christ’ to describe the Church has been peculiarly associated with Paul. For this reason it seems well to begin by discussing briefly what Paul meant by the concept of body in order to have a working definition of it. We will then endeavour to ascertain whether this idea is also present in Matthew.

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