Invisible church

The invisible church or church invisible is a theological concept of an "invisible" body of the elect who are known only to God, in contrast to the "visible church"—that is, the institutional body on earth which preaches the gospel and administers the sacraments. Every member of the invisible church is saved, while the visible church contains some individuals who are saved and others who are unsaved. (Compare Matthew 7:21-24.)

This concept has been attributed to St Augustine of Hippo as part of his refutation of the Donatist sect.[1] He was strongly influenced by the Platonist belief that true reality is invisible and that, if the visible reflects the invisible, it does so only partially and imperfectly (see Theory of Forms).[2] Others question whether Augustine really held to some form of an "invisible true Church" concept.[3]

The concept was insisted upon during the Protestant reformation as a way of distinguishing between the "visible" Roman Catholic Church, which according to the Reformers was corrupt, and those within it who truly believe, as well as true believers within their own denominations. John Calvin described the church invisible as "that which is actually in God's presence, into which no persons are received but those who are children of God by grace of adoption and true members of Christ by sanctification of the Holy Spirit... [it] includes not only the saints presently living on earth, but all the elect from the beginning of the world." (Institutes 4.1.7)

Pietism later took this a step further, with its formulation of ecclesiolae in ecclesia.

Roman Catholic theology, reacting against the Protestant concept of an invisible Church, emphasized the visible aspect of the Church founded by Christ, but in the twentieth century placed more stress on the interior life of the Church as a supernatural organism, identifying the Church, as in the encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi[4] of Pope Pius XII, with the Mystical Body of Christ.[5] In Catholic doctrine, the one true Church is the visible society founded by Christ, namely, the Catholic Church.

This encyclical rejected two extreme views of the Church:[6]

For the Eastern Orthodox Church too, making a real distinction between the heavenly and invisible Church, alone true and absolute, and the earthly Church, imperfect and relative, is a "Nestorian ecclesiology".[9]

References

  1. ^ Justo L. Gonzalez (1970-1975). A History of Christian Thought: Volume 2 (From Augustine to the eve of the Reformation). Abingdon Press. 
  2. ^ Wallace M. Alston, The Church of the Living God: A Reformed Perspective (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002 ISBN 0664225535, 9780664225537), p. 53]
  3. ^ Patrick Barnes, The Non-Orthodox: The Orthodox Teaching on Christians Outside of the Church
  4. ^ Mystici Corporis Christi
  5. ^ John Hardon, Definition of the Catholic Church
  6. ^ Heribert Mühlen, Una Mystica Persona, München, 1967, p. 51
  7. ^ Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, 63
  8. ^ S Tromp, Caput influit sensum et motum, Gregorianum, 1958, pp. 353-366
  9. ^ Vladimir Lossky, The mystical theology of the Eastern Church (St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976 ISBN 0913836311) p. 186

See also

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