A Spirit of Unity

I thought it would be appropriate for the inaugural post of a blog titled ‘EkklesiaBeautiful’ to be a discussion of ecclesiology (theology of Christian community). My main interest in this post is ‘the church’ in the universal sense. What is it? Maybe more precisely, what unifies it? In the Roman Catholic tradition, the church is not only a mystical unification, but is also an institutional one. In other words, if you are not in the Roman Catholic organization, then you are outside of the church in an important way (please correct me if this no longer true in the post-Vatican II church). This view is very attractive to me because it most obviously fulfills Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23, that those who believe in him will be in unity.

However, the New Testament does not display a rigid institutionalization in the early church, so it makes it hard for me to believe Jesus was talking about an institutional unity. The first local Christians were organized into local churches that were united through teachings of the Gospel. It appears that figures like Paul were not given authority by a defined command and control structure, but by their reputation. This seems to me more of a de facto authority than a de jure one. (If you see otherwise please speak up!).

This lack of institutionalization in the New Testament does not mean that institutionalized ecclesiology is wrong, just that it is not necessary. If we find a system that facilitates a greater practical outworking of the church, given the corruption of people and a cultural distrust of ‘the establishment’, than we are free to choose that system.

What makes more sense to me than institutional unity is a spirit of unity. This means that all local churches do not have to share one governance structure or agree on a strict doctrine (there is some necessity for doctrinal unity, but I believe we can take a relatively loose understanding). What it means is that all Christians not only respect, but selflessly love and accept each other. The Baptist has to love the Catholic, the Lutheran must love the Pentecostal, the Methodist must love the Eastern Orthodox. That love cannot be begrudging, but must embrace the other as a sister or brother.

I guess I am calling for an active reconciliation. This is not an organizational reunification, but an acknowledgement that all who believe in Jesus as the Christ are brothers and sisters. It would require both a grassroots movement (mostly in the form of accepting attitudes) as well as some changes at the top levels. One such top level change, which is probably the biggest barrier, would be an agreement to have communion/Eucharist open to all who confess Jesus as Lord.

This of course leads back to the issue of doctrinal unity. Is simply saying that any who believe Jesus as the Christ and Lord are to be embraced in the communion of saints? I sense that this may be too loose a doctrinal definition, but I am not sure I want to get any stricter. If you have any thoughts please leave a comment and weigh in on the discussion.