Abstract
This chapter seeks to enhance Adventist remnant ecclesiology by exploring the possibility of developing an Adventist version of communio ecclesiology. It outlines what the various mainstream Christian communio ecclesiologies hold in common, in the expectation that this material, with appropriate adjustments, might contribute to an ecclesiology that is genuinely Adventist. The author beliefs that Adventists, too, can accept the prevailing contemporary consensus that the ‘the church is the communio of the faithful’ as a formal theological principle, while, like other Christians, making additional specifications in line with their own distinctive theological heritage and priorities. The elements of overlap and difference here open up the possibility of dialogue between Adventists and other Christians on ecclesiological matters. Since this has not been the usual route taken by Adventists thus far, this chapter provides the theological grounds for highlighting this particular concept of koinonia or communio, as well as some preliminary explanation of how this proposal might work.
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Notes
- 1.
Herwi Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology (London, Shepherdstown, W. Va.: Sheed and Ward; Patmos Press, 1981), 236.
- 2.
Pickard, Seeking the Church: An Introduction to Ecclesiology, 26–29. Given its preoccupation with ecclesiological concerns, the twentieth century is often called the ‘century of ecclesiology’. See Otto Dibelius, Das Jahrhundert der Kirche: Geschichte, Betrachtung, Umschau und Ziele (Berlin: FurcheVerlag, 1927). Similarly, Avery Dulles claims that this new development can be seen as an ‘ecclesiological revolution’. See Avery Dulles, Models of Revelation, 5th ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000), 35. A famous Lutheran theologian, Jaroslav Pelikan, described this ecclesiological renaissance of the twentieth century in the following way: ‘The doctrine of the Church became, as it had never quite been before, the bearer of the whole of the Christian message for the twentieth century, as well as the recapitulation of the entire doctrinal tradition from preceding centuries.’ See Jaroslav Pelikan, Christian doctrine and modern culture (since 1700), The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 282.
- 3.
Ecclesiology was not a separate locus in either the early church or the Middle Ages. A detailed outline of the emergence and history of ecclesiology can be found in Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 21–27. Cyril Hovorun, Meta-Ecclesiology: Chronicles on Church Awareness (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
- 4.
Kärkkäinen, Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives, 9–10.
- 5.
The nature, story and study of the Christian church have become extremely popular areas of inquiry in various religious communities, in courses on theology and religious studies and in the field of scholarly debate. Ecclesiological questions and concepts have also been addressed by historical, ethical, missiological, anthropological, sociological, philosophical and many other sub-disciplines. See Gerard Mannion and Lewis Seymour Mudge, The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church (New York; London: Routledge, 2008), 1. See, for example, Kärkkäinen’s overview (2002) and the publications from the Ecclesiological Investigations Research Network—www.ei-research.net
- 6.
Notwithstanding the fact that the history of formal ecumenism in terms of the formation of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948 is quite brief—less than half a century old—it can still be claimed that ‘no other movement in the history of the Christian church, perhaps with the exception of the Reformation, has shaped the thinking and practice of Christendom as much as the modern movement for Christian unity’. Kärkkäinen, Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives, 7–8. Hence, it is not unreasonable to expect that historians in the coming days will almost surely record that ecumenism has been ‘one of the most remarkable characteristics of the twentieth century of church life.’ Lorelei F. Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology: From Foundations through Dialogue to Symbolic Competence for Communionality (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008), xii. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip077/2006102207.html
- 7.
Nicholas Sagovsky, Ecumenism, Christian Origins, and the Practice of Communion (Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Francesca Aran Murphy and Christopher Asprey, Ecumenism Today: The Universal Church in the 21st Century (Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub. Ltd., 2008). Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, Ecumenical Ecclesiology: Unity, Diversity and Otherness in a Fragmented World, ed. Gerard Mannion, vol. 5, Ecclesiological Investigations (London: T. & T. Clark, 2009). Influenced by the ecumenical wave, the older, controversial approach has thus created space for mutual learning and appreciation.
- 8.
See, for example, Paul M. Collins, Christian Community Now: Ecclesiological Investigations, T & T Clark theology (London; New York: T & T Clark, 2008), vi–xiii; Paul M. Collins and Michael A. Fahey, Receiving ‘The Nature and Mission of the Church’: Ecclesial Reality and Ecumenical Horizons for the Twenty-First Century, Ecclesiological investigations (London: T & T Clark, 2008).
- 9.
Kärkkäinen, Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives, 8.
- 10.
Kärkkäinen, Introduction to Ecclesiology: Ecumenical, Historical & Global Perspectives, 8. This kind of reasoning seems to represent the main drive behind the recent document from the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. Published in 2013, this document summarizes the outcome of many years of collaborative work by a large number of representative theologians from Anglican, Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. See World Council of Churches, The Church: Towards a Common Vision (Faith and Order Paper No. 214) (Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2013).
- 11.
Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, Sacra doctrina (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1998). Robert W. Jenson, Systematic Theology. Volume II, The Works of God (Oxford University Press, 1999), Book. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=151,124&site=ehost-live. Alan J. Torrance, Persons in Communion: An Essay on Trinitarian Description and Human Participation, with Special Reference to Volume One of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996). Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “The church as the fellowship of persons: An emerging Pentecostal ecclesiology of koinonia,” PentecoStudies 6, no. 1 (2007).
- 12.
To understand the centrality of koinonia and different approaches to this concept in contemporary ecumenical debates, see, for instance: Susan H. Moore, “Towards Koinonia in Faith, Life and Witness: Theological Insights and Emphases from the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, Santiago de Compostela, 1993,” Ecumenical Review 47 (1995); Verna Lewis-Elgidely, Koinonia in the Three Great Abrahamic Faiths: Acclaiming the Mystery and Diversity of Faiths (South Bend, IN: Cloverdale Books, 2007). Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0718/2007020014.html; Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology.; Margaret Jenkins, “Towards Koinonia in Life,” Ecumenical Review 45.1 (January 1993): 93. Günther Gassmann and John A. Radano, The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Ecumenical Perspectives on the 1991 Canberra Statement on Unity, Faith and Order, No. 163 (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1993). J. M. R. Tillard, “Koinonia,” in Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, ed. Georges Florovsky (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1991), 568.
- 13.
Ernest Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology (Dent, Sedbergh, Cumbria, UK: Theophania Publishing, 2001), 13–34.
- 14.
The Collins, Christian Community Now: Ecclesiological Investigations, vii–xiii. World Council of Churches, “Towards koinonia in faith, life, and witness: a discussion paper” (Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, Santiago de Compostela, World Council of Churches Publications, Geneva, 1993).
- 15.
Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology, xxxii–xxxiv.
- 16.
Thomas F. Günther Best, Gaßmann, World Council of Churches, On the Way to Fuller Koinonia (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1994). This notion is considered to be ‘the central and fundamental idea of the Council’s documents’. See Extraordinary Synod of 1985, ‘The Final Report,’ Origins 15 (19 December 1985), 448.
- 17.
When producing the document, ‘Some Aspect of the Church Understood as a Communion,’ Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger openly argued that ‘communion ecclesiology’ represents the ultimate and the most basic form of ecclesiology. L’Osservatore Romano [English Edition], 17 June 1992, 1. See also Lorelei F. Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology: From Foundations through Dialogue to Symbolic Competence for Communionality (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008), xiii.
- 18.
J. M. R. Tillard, Church of Churches: The Ecclesiology of Communion (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1992). Timothy 1. MacDonald, The Ecclesiology of Yves Congar: Foundational Themes (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984); Yves Congar, I Believe in the Holy Spirit, 1 vols., Milestones in Catholic theology (New York: Crossroad Pub. Co., 1997); Yves Congar, Diversity and Communion, North American ed. (Mystic, Conn.: Twenty-Third Publications, 1985); Henri de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988); Henri de Lubac, The Splendour of the Church (New York,: Sheed and Ward, 1956).
- 19.
Dennis M. Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2000), 7–8; Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 18.
- 20.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 18.
- 21.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 18.; Herwi Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology (London, Shepherdstown, W. Va.: Sheed and Ward; Patmos Press, 1981), 236.
- 22.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 18.
- 23.
Ernest Skublics, “The Rebirth of Communion Ecclesiology within Orthodoxy: From Nineteenth Century Russians to Twenty-First Century Greeks,” Logos 46, no. 1–2 (2005): 95–124. Grigorios Larentzakis, “The Unity of the Church as Koinonia: Some Reflections From an Orthodox Standpoint,” Ecumenical Review 45 (1993).
- 24.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 19. Compare with Alister E. McGrath, Reformation thought: an introduction, 4th ed. (Malden, MA; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 44–45.
- 25.
Arguably, one of the finest examples of a Protestant appropriation of the CE framework can be found in Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, 127–282. Or, for a more recent attempt, see Scott MacDougall, More Than Communion: Imagining an Eschatological Ecclesiology (London: Bloomsbury T. & T. Clark, 2015), iBook.
- 26.
Highlighting various stages that mark this common movement towards a full communion, ecumenical theologians have introduced language that distinguishes between different ‘degrees of communion’. See Jeffrey T. VanderWilt, Communion with Non-Catholic Christians: Risks, Challenges, and Opportunities (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2003), 29–31.
- 27.
Rikhof argues that any term that is to be used to define the essence of the church must fulfil two more linguistic conditions: precision and openness. A completely empty term would add to the existing ecclesiological confusion since it would not be able to lead to a formal system that shapes an ecclesiological discourse. On the other hand, a closely determined term would not leave enough space for subsequent filling in with different concepts, motifs and metaphors. Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 232. Even though a great many terms are available to express the communal nature of the church, not all of them fulfil the aforementioned conditions. Rikhof’s ultimate vote for communio is based on its strong links with other related terms like ‘community’, ‘communion’ and ‘communication’, that assumed great popularity in the ecclesiological literature in the post-conciliar period. While Rikhof argues for the adequacy of communio over the Greek term koinonia, this chapter utilizes both terms interchangeably, as equally good for facilitating critical development and evaluation. In light of all the above arguments, Rikhof concludes that ‘the quintessential approach’ to ‘the complete basic statement’ should then be: ‘The church is the communio of the faithful’. Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 233.
- 28.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 19. See also Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 12. Communio ecclesiology is still regarded as a ‘major achievement of ecumenical consensus’. See Robert Jenson, “The church as Communio,” in The Catholicity of the Reformation, ed. Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 1.; Jenson, Systematic Theology. Volume II, The Works of God, 221.
- 29.
For an example of typical objections to the CE framework and its potential weaknesses, see Edward Russell, “Reconsidering relational anthropology: a critical assessment of John Zizioulas’ theological anthropology,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 5.2 (July 2003). Susan K. Wood, “Communion Ecclesiology: Source of Hope, Source of Controversy,” Pro Ecclesia 2 (1993).
- 30.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 12. Although Fuchs’s proposal might appear different from Doyle’s at first glance, in essence they both express the same composite relational network that comprises the fundamental nature of church. Compare with Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology, 25–43. In his famous study, The Concept of Church, Rikhof clarifies this relational framework in more depth. According to him, the phrase ‘communio of the faithful’ can be treated as a basic statement about the nature of the church. He notes that this definition presumes a certain formal, systematic network that follows from it and determines the coherence of a possible ecclesiological discourse. Among other dimensions, this formal network involves: (1) the constitutive relationship of the faithful as a whole to God, Father, Son and Spirit; (2) all the elements that are characteristic of relationships in which people are involved; (3) a temporal dimension of communal relations, which normally imply some duration and cover a more or less substantial period of time; and (4) a spatial dimension in which communal relationships are expressed in some visible, localized form. Because ‘communio of the faithful’ infers the faithful as a whole, and not merely an individual or a number of separated individuals, (5) the structure of that whole becomes a significant issue as well. As generally accepted, some form of internal organization is a feature characteristic of communal human behaviour that occurs over time. Rikhof even claims that choosing communio as the central notion (6) has implications for our understanding of purpose: ‘The purpose of a communal relationship can lie inside the relationship, that is to say, the relationship can be its own purpose, or it can lie outside the relationship, or a relationship can have both types of purposes.’ Linked to this, but also to the previous point, is (7) the element of a relationship between the church and ‘non-church’, which also becomes a necessary part of ecclesiological discourse. Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 233–35.
- 31.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 13.
- 32.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 13.
- 33.
Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 7–8.
- 34.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 13.
- 35.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 12–13.
- 36.
For an overview of Doyle’s explanations of these five so-called ‘touchstones’ of CE vision, see Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 175–78. Doyle (pp. 18–19) explains the ways in which his proposal further squares with the five models of church, as set out in Dulles, Models of the Church.
- 37.
Therefore, among more than 20 ecclesiological proposals that Doyle surveys in his book (most of them emerging from Catholic cues), Henri de Lubac’s radically inclusive and multilayered vision of the church strikes him as particularly promising in terms of the ability to orchestrate all of the aforementioned dimensions of relationality as one harmonious whole. See Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 63–70.
- 38.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 14–17.
- 39.
Dennis Doyle has attempted to devise a strategy for combating these five unfortunate reductionist distortions. The strategy consists of juxtaposing the reductionist ecclesial vision with an appropriate image or ecclesial dimension that is lacking in its elucidation of the nature of church. For an illustration of how his strategy works, see Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 14–16.
- 40.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 3.
- 41.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 42.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 3.
- 43.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 44.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 19.
- 45.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 19.
- 46.
For a brief outline of the main contributions of these six approaches, see Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 19.
- 47.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 48.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 49.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20. Perhaps, a move beyond the propositional perception of truth to include its other complementary aspects might prove valuable in this regard.
- 50.
Joseph A. Komonchak, “Conceptions of Communion, Past and Present,” Cristianesimo nella storia 16 (1995): 339.
- 51.
Nicholas M. Healy, “Communion Ecclesiology: A Cautionary Note,” Pro Ecclesia 4 (1995): 6.
- 52.
John Ford, “Koinonia and Roman Catholic Theology,” Ecumenical Trends 26 (March 1997): 42–44.
- 53.
‘Communion is an elastic image: there can be degrees of commonality. It thus avoids the either/or generated by the juridical and institutional images.’ Francesca Aran Murphy and Christopher Asprey, Ecumenism Today: The Universal Church in the 21st Century (Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008), 48. CDF, “Some aspects of the church understood as communion,” Origins 22 (25 June 1992): 108–12. Michael G. Lawler and Thomas J. Shanahan, Church: A Spirited Communion, Theology and Life Series (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995), 19–20.
- 54.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 55.
The quotation is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2.
- 56.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 20.
- 57.
Rikhof sums up his quest for the real definition of the church by stating that the notion of church as the ‘communio of the faithful […] can stand as the central statement in ecclesiology. With the help of this terminus, this basic statement, the richness of religious metaphors and of biblical and other insights can be made fruitful, and the opportunities created by Vatican II can be used to develop a truly theological vision of the church’. See Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 236.
- 58.
Yves Congar, “Pneumatologie dogmatique,” in Initiation à la pratique de la théologie, ed. B. Lauret and F. Refoulé (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1982). Manuel Rebeiro, The Church as the Community of the Believers: Hans Küng’s Concept of the Church as a Proposal for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology, 2 vols. (New Delhi: Intercultural Publications, 2001).
- 59.
Elizabeth Teresa Groppe, Yves Congar’s Theology of the Holy Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 156.
- 60.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 51.
- 61.
Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 235. For one of the most insightful proposals on how disciplines such as history, sociology, cultural analysis or ethnography can be used within the wider framework of the theological exploration of the church, see Healy, Church, World, and the Christian Life: Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology, 154–85.
- 62.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 24. Michiels reiterates a somewhat standard ecumenical definition of koinonia when he writes: ‘Koinonia is therefore more than human solidarity. It is, in the first place, the participation of the community in the life of the Father and the Son, and in their Spirit. It is this koinonia or communio of believers with God, Jesus Christ, and their Spirit which constitutes the church.’ See Robrecht Michiels, “The ‘Model of Church’ in the First Christian Community of Jerusalem: Ideal and Reality,” Louvain Studies 10:4 (1985): 309.
- 63.
CDF, “Some aspects of the church understood as communion,” 108.
- 64.
Jeffrey T. VanderWilt, A Church Without Borders: The Eucharist and the Church in Ecumenical Perspective (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 20–21. CDF, “Some aspects of the church understood as communion,” 108. For a theological use of this ‘geometric’ language, see VanderWilt, Communion with Non-Catholic Christians: Risks, Challenges, and Opportunities, 24.
- 65.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 149.
- 66.
Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 233–35. Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology, 25–26.
- 67.
Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 234.
- 68.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 54.
- 69.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 54.
- 70.
Matt Jenson, The Gravity of Sin: Augustine, Luther and Barth on ‘Homo Incurvatus in Se’ (London: T. & T. Clark, 2006), 190.
- 71.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 51. Michael W. Goheen, ‘As the Father Has Sent Me, I am Sending You’: J. E. Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology (Zoetermeer: Uitgeverij Boekencentrum, 2000), 6.
- 72.
For an example of a mature articulation of this overarching missiological framework, see Lesslie Newbigin, A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1994), 52–53; Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, Rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1995), 32.
- 73.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 52; Jacques Haers and Peter de Mey, Theology and Conversation: Towards a Relational Theology, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium (Leuven; Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2003), 532–38. Thomas Oden cautions ecclesiologists not to fall into the habit of binary thinking that polarizes an ecclesiological discourse into opposition between ‘hypervisibility’ and ‘hyperinvisibility’. Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit, 1st ed., 3 vols., vol. 3, Systematic Theology (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 330.
- 74.
For a balanced examination of the visible and invisible aspects of koinonia, see Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion,” Ecumenical Trends 21:9 (1992); VanderWilt, Communion with Non-Catholic Christians: Risks, Challenges, and Opportunities, 24.
- 75.
Healy, Church, World, and the Christian Life: Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology, 3.
- 76.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 52. For a more detailed presentation of the thesis that it is through the variety of church practices that koinonia becomes discernible, see Reinhard Hütter, Suffering Divine Things: Theology as Church Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans, 2000).
- 77.
Corneliu C. Simut, A Critical Study of Hans Küng’s Ecclesiology: From Traditionalism to Modernism, 1st ed. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 81.
- 78.
Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, 145.
- 79.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 52.
- 80.
For a useful summary of the biblical foundations of this concept, see Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 233. Fuchs, Koinonia and the Quest for an Ecumenical Ecclesiology: From Foundations through Dialogue to Symbolic Competence for Communionality, 6–7. John Reumann, “Koinonia in Scripture: a Survey of Biblical Texts,” in On the Way to Fuller Koinonia: Official Report of the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order (Faith and Order Paper 166), ed. Thomas F. and Günther Best, Gaßmann (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1994), 40; J. Y. Campbell, “Koinonia and Its Cognates in the New Testament,” Journal of Biblical Literature 51 (1932): 353–82. G. Panikulam, “Koinonia in the New Testament: a dynamic expression of Christian life” (Thesis, Biblical Institute Press, Pontificio istituto biblico, Rome, 1979), passim.; M. Jack Suggs, “Koinonia in the New Testament,” Mid-Stream 23, no. 4 (1984): 351–62; J. C. Hay, Koinonia in the New Testament: A Study of the Word (Toronto: Canadian Council of Churches, 1970); Leopold Sabourin, “Koinonia in the New Testament,” Religious Studies Bulletin 1, no. 4 (1981). Andrew T. Lincoln, “Communion: Some Pauline Foundations,” Ecclesiology, no. 5 (2009).
- 81.
The connection between the act of proclamation and the resulting phenomenon of koinonia is made more than explicit in the prologue to the epistle of John (1 John 1.1–4). For a more detailed exegetical analysis of this organic link, see Panikulam, “Koinonia in the New Testament: a dynamic expression of Christian life,” 131–40. For the theological appropriation of this text, see the preface to Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: Dei Verbum, Solemnly Promulgated by His Holiness, Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965, Documents of Vatican II (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 1965). John Webster is one of the most prominent evangelical theologians to undertake the important task of articulating the organic relationship between the Word (and the heralding of it) and the genesis of the ecclesial community. See Webster, “On Evangelical Ecclesiology.”; John Webster, “The church and the perfection of God,” in The Community of the Word: Toward an Evangelical Ecclesiology, ed. Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005).
- 82.
See ‘The Apostles’ Creed’, http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm (accessed: 21/12/2015). Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Creeds & Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, 4 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). Sagovsky, Ecumenism, Christian Origins, and the Practice of Communion.
- 83.
For an insightful study of an Adventist method of retrieval of the lost aspects of the early Christian vision of reality, see a recent doctoral dissertation: Lukicˊ, “The Anatomy of Dissension.”
- 84.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 13. Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 36.
- 85.
In his influential monograph, The Concept of Church, Herwi Rikhof concludes his inquiry into the use of metaphors (and models) in ecclesiology by arguing for the necessity of having a pivot-terminus in the construction of a ‘real definition’ of the concept of the church. He claims that it is possible to provide the definitio realis (essence or reality description) of church—a definition that revolves around the terminus that states the key-element, which structures the whole and from which other elements follow. However, it has to fulfil a number of rules or requirements in order to be adequate. According to Rikhof, a proper definition should: (1) ‘establish the essence of what is defined and not state accidental properties’; (2) ‘state the genus and the differentiating species’ (i.e. per genus proximum et differentiam specificam); and (3) ‘not use metaphors or figurative language’. While Rikhof admits that one of the main conditions the central statement has to fulfil is to ‘express the internal link between the various images used for the church’, metaphors or images themselves (as prominent as they may be in contemporary discussions) cannot be used to make a central ecclesiological terminus that provides a formal base for a systematic theological treatment of the church. Their presence would ‘start a regressive search for interpretation-keys and coherence-criteria’ and would necessitate additional terminological qualifications (pp. 225–36).
- 86.
As argued above, Matt Jenson has convincingly shown that even the famous Avery Dulles’ definitions of the church as herald, institution, servant and sacrament primarily address what the church does, while the church as mystical communion represents what the church is and therefore precedes any further qualifiers.
- 87.
Jenson and Wilhite, The Church: A Guide for the Perplexed, 52.
- 88.
Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 233.
- 89.
Gerard Mannion, Ecclesiology and Postmodernity: Questions for the Church in Our Time (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2007).
- 90.
Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 8–10.
- 91.
Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 9.
- 92.
Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 9.
- 93.
Skublics, Aspects and Implications of Communion Ecclesiology, 9–10. See also the chapter ‘A Renewed Sociality’ in Pickard, Seeking the Church: An Introduction to Ecclesiology, 81–100.
- 94.
Doyle, Communion Ecclesiology: Vision and Versions, 23–168.
- 95.
Rikhof’s seminal study, The Concept of Church, demonstrates that by connecting the rich biblical and patristic tradition of the early Christian Church to the ecclesiological issues prevalent in contemporary ecumenical discussions, the term communio (or its Greek synonym—koinonia) serves as a chief ‘interpretation-key and coherence criterion’ for the construction of a comprehensive systematic vision. Rikhof claims that, when used as a basic statement about the nature of the church, a pivot-terminus has the purpose of: (1) indicating the basic constitutive elements of the formal systematic network, (2) determining the scope of any possible ecclesiological discourse and (3) guaranteeing the consistency of a systematic conceptual meta-structure, both internally and externally. For a more detailed explanation of the role of koinonia as a pivotal term in an ecclesiological synthesis, see Rikhof, The Concept of Church: A Methodological Inquiry into the Use of Metaphors in Ecclesiology, 228–36.
- 96.
The search for a conceptual unifying centre, as already suggested, is not new to Adventism. Rolf Pöhler has rightly claimed that there is no one ‘correct’ way of doing theology, but many possible ways. Each situation, target group or context requires the process of rethinking and revisiting of existing theological knowledge to see how it can be adapted to respond to the purpose of the communication of the gospel. Not all the central motifs are equally suitable for use in integrating the totality of one’s religious outlook, but if approached with thoroughness and if one remains faithful to the core values of a certain religious community, they can all still be used as valuable conceptual and systematic tools. Pöhler, “Unifying centre,” 18–20.
- 97.
Pöhler, “Unifying centre,” 19–20.
- 98.
Pöhler, “Unifying centre,” 19–20.
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Lazić, T. (2019). Communio Ecclesiology: A New Ecclesiological Opportunity. In: Towards an Adventist Version of Communio Ecclesiology. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25181-9_5
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