Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics

Biblical Foundations

The Christian concept of community is rooted in the Bible. The basic social orientation of human nature is expressed in the creation story: “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Subsequently, the Hebrew scriptures tell the story of one particular community, the nation of Israel, whom God has called to be his people.

In the New Testament, the notion of God's people is applied to the community of the followers of Jesus Christ. With God as their common Father, all Christian believers are like brothers and sisters to one another. Collectively they form “the People of God” (I Peter 2:9-10), a new Israel under the lordship of Christ. The Apostle Paul describes this community with the Greek word ekklesia, a term that denotes the full assembly of citizens of a city-state. According to Paul, each local group of Christian believers represents an ekklesia (congregation), and all groups together form the universal ekklesia (church) of Christ. Another important word in Paul's vocabulary for the church is koinonia (partnership), which characterizes the church as a community of mutuality and solidarity. The image of the church as a collective person (the “Body of Christ”) further develops this understanding of community. As one body has many members with diverse functions, so all believers form one body in Christ. They are individually members of one another and serve each other with their diverse gifts and abilities. Each member stands in need of the other, and whatever affects one member affects all (see Romans 12: 4-8 and I Corinthians 12:12-27).

The Concept Of The Church

The basic idea of the church in the New Testament was defined more closely in the Nicene Creed (long thought to have been promulgated at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, but now thought to have been put forward at the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE), which characterizes the church with four attributes: one, holy, catholic (meaning universal), and apostolic. Another early document, the Apostle's Creed (sixth century), refers to the church as the “Communion of Saints.” In the history of Christian thought, these passages have provided the basic categories for the Christian self-understanding as a community of faith. The church is one; that is, the people of God cannot be conceived of as being divided or disjointed. The church is holy; it belongs to God and somehow shares in God's own holiness. It is catholic; it possesses a universal scope and thus transcends all human boundaries and differences (geographic, ethnic, social, cultural, and so forth). It is apostolic; it stands in unbroken and faithful continuity with the original community of the Apostles.

Needless to say, each of these affirmations about the nature of the church raises various questions and may be interpreted in a number of ways. For example, how can the idea of ecclesial unity be reconciled with Christianity's empirical plurality and division? Should the unity of the church be understood in institutional terms, as doctrinal agreement, or as an entirely spiritual or mystical reality? ...