Church (movement)

Church (movement), the historical movement that arose from the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Christians believe that God founded the Church through the work of Jesus and that it is sustained by the continual presence of the Holy Spirit.

In New Testament Greek, the word for church is ekklesia, meaning “those called out”, those called by God away from their natural communities to form a new and deeper one. The word “church” itself is a corruption of the Greek adjective kyriakon, meaning “the Lord’s”. Invading barbarian tribes in the 4th and 5th centuries understood the word to refer to the church building—the “Lord’s house”—in the towns they occupied. They later applied it to the Christian people.

The New Testament offers many metaphors for the Church, including the following four. One, it is the body of Christ: Christ is the head, Christians the many members (Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 4:15-16). Two, the Church is related to Christ as branches to a vine (John 15:1-11); a more intricate and pervasive relationship is implied by this image than by the image of the body. Three, the Church is the bride of Christ (Mark 2:19-20), an image that stresses the personal, intimate quality of the relationship and the depth of mutual commitment. Four, the Church is the people of God (2 Corinthians 6:16), a description that stresses, on one hand, the continuity of the Church with Israel (Luke 1:67-8) and, on the other, its potential universality (Matthew 28:19-20).

Traditionally, the Church is said to have four marks, or notes: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The Church is affirmed as one because it confesses one Lord and is animated by one Spirit; as holy because God claims it, not because of its moral perfection; as catholic (meaning “universal”) because it transcends all the divisions of humanity; and as apostolic because it maintains continuity with the apostles’ teaching and mission. These marks are attributed to the Church in faith and hope, and in the recognition that the visible condition of the Church often does not correspond to them.

Three theories of Church structure may be identified. In the first, organic structure, authority is understood to reside in the whole body of Christians—clergy and laity together—whose leaders are empowered by the Spirit acting through the whole body (sobornost). In the second, hierarchical structure, authority originates in the clerical hierarchy, whose ministry to the laity makes lay members and so forms the Church. In the third, sectarian structure, authority resides in individual Christians, who band together as a congregation. No actual Church perfectly embodies any of these structures, but, theoretically, Orthodox Churches best typify the first, Roman Catholic Churches the second, and Protestant Churches the third.