Ecclesiology Archives - Page 2 of 2 -

What does it mean to be Christian? – May 1, 2019

There is no easy answer to that question, and those who think the answer is easy, really don’t understand the Christian faith.

Christianity before I found the Church was a shallow and vapid expression of the Christian faith, and seemed focused on emotionalism more so than the truth. What feels good or feels right is indeed the truth in this cacophony of error. I spent most of my life as a protestant, and while everyone was teaching what THEY thought scriptures were saying, no one taught how a Christian should live, what it actually meant to be Christian.

As I dove into history, and focused on early Church history, there are certain elements and qualities in the Church, qualities and expectations in the life of a Christian, that just isn’t found today in most of Christendom. The Church, and its entire sacramental life and being within, should point to the Eucharist.

A Christian is a part of the body of Christ. One becomes a part of that body through Baptism. One participates in communion with that body by the Eucharist. One remains a part of the body by holding to the same beliefs, as taught and passed down (catholicity of the Dogmatic fabric of faith), and remaining in communion with one another, just as the three persons of the Godhead are in perfect communion and unity with one another.

As we were created human beings, with both body and spirit, we are to live our lives in recognition that we live and exist in both body and spirit. As such, those who live by mental ascent alone do nothing for the body. They continue to live in their passions, and do nothing to defeat the disease, of which sin is the symptom.

If the Church is the Hospital, the Priests her Doctors, and theology a therapeutic science for the soul, to be Christian is to work ourselves within the divine-human institution of the Church to the healing of mind, body, and soul, affecting a restoration of relationship with God. To be a Christian is to obediently follow the prescription of the Church, just as we follow a doctors orders to the healing of our bodies, for Christ is the Great Physician and those prescriptions are his. Ours is not a faith of passivity, but activity in love and compassion. We are the light to lighten the gentiles, because we are the body of Christ, and together we incarnate Christ in this world.

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Our understanding of Church affects our overall understanding of Christ, and all our theology that stems from this understanding, for indeed the Church is the body of Christ.

Understanding the Church – January 2nd, 2019

Ecclesiology is the Theology of our faith concerning the Church. As we believe that the Church is the body of Christ (and the vehicle of Holy Revelation), the understanding of Christ goes hand in hand with our understanding of the Church. Likewise, an improper view, treatment, and understanding of the Church can affect our beliefs and understanding of Christ. This is a malady of the Christian faith I believe we witness today across the Protestant milieu.

The Church is a divine-human organism, meaning that it is both equally and fully human and divine. Within the Church is contained the fullness of God, and the fullness of man, “but also in the frailty and brokenness and insufficiencies of man, and in that sense the Church is already at home and still becoming.” (1) It is within the Church that man encounters God, both spiritually and physically through her sacraments. It is through man’s participation with the divine nature of Christ, and the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church. that man is healed of his infirmities and becomes that which he was created to be. (1) It is within the Church that man encounters God, both spiritually and physically through her sacraments. It is through man’s participation with the divine nature of Christ, and the sacramental life and rhythm of the Church. that man is healed of his infirmities and becomes that which he was created to be.

We are summoned into this Church by Christ through the grace of God into an eschatological path of asceticism and denial of self. It is within the Church that the disciples of Christ are “ingodded” through the sacramental life of the Church, wherein we attain a better understanding into the fullness of Christ, his teachings, the Law of the Spirit of Life, and the Love of God. It is within the sacraments of the Church, more importantly the Divine mystery of our faith, that the Catholicity of the Church is fully expressed. For, the Church is the bride of Christ, a mystical union of the divine and the human, of Christ and his followers, united to Him in faith and participation in His divine will (for those who love him obey His commandments), as well as a partaking and participation with His body and blood, the spiritual food and medicine for our souls, for indeed whoever eats of His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, and will be raised up in the last day.(2) By this partaking and participation, the Church is a theanthropic (divine-human) communion of Jesus Christ with his people.

By this partaking and participation, the Church is a theanthropic (divine-human) communion of Jesus Christ with his people.

Why is there a tendency to force an ecclesiological Nestorianism upon the Church, with an overemphasis on the “invisible Church,” or the “spiritual nature” of the Church, by which all are supposedly in unity; yet, there is a rejection of the physical and manifest aspects – the human parts and expressions of the Church, and the teaching and understanding of her faith – in which there is great disunity? The overarching view is that we are united in spirit, a part of the invisible Church, but ignore the disunity and disagreements in theology, teaching, and overall praxis of faith as though it did not matter. This flies in the face of what Paul spoke to in first Corinthians, when he urged them all to be of one mind, and one accord.

An improper understanding and treatment of the Church will lead to an improper understanding and treatment of Christ, for the Church is the body of Christ, and it is through the Church by which we come to Him, and our understanding of Him.

¹Metropolitan Anthony Bloom. God and Man. (Crestwood, New York: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997),

² Ibid.