TheFour Marks of the Church, also known as theAttributes of the Church,[1] describes four distinctiveadjectives oftraditionalChristianecclesiology as expressed in theNicene Creed completed at theFirst Council of Constantinople in AD 381: "[We believe] inone, holy,catholic, andapostolic Church."[2]
This ecumenical creed is today recited in theliturgies of theEastern Orthodox Church, theCatholic Church (bothLatin andEastern Rites), theOriental Orthodox Churches, theAssyrian Church of the East, theMoravian Church, theLutheran Churches, theMethodist Churches, thePresbyterian Churches, theAnglican Communion, and by members of theReformed Churches,[3] although they interpret it in very different ways, and some Protestants alter the word "Catholic" in the creed, replacing it with the word "Christian".
While many doctrines, based on both tradition and different interpretations of theBible, distinguish onedenomination from another (largely explaining why there are many different ones), the Four Marks represent a summary of what many clergy andtheologians have historically considered to be the most important affirmations of Christianity.
The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in theChristian Church sinceearly Christianity. Allusions to them can be found in the writings of2nd-century earlyChurch Father and bishopIgnatius of Antioch. They were not established in doctrine until theFirst Council of Constantinople in 381 as an antidote to certainheresies that had crept into the Church in its early history. There the Council elaborated on theNicene Creed, established by theFirst Council of Nicaea 56 years before by adding to the end a section that included the affirmation: "[We believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."[4] The phrase remains in versions of the Nicene Creed.
In some languages, for example, German, the Latin "catholica" was substituted by "Christian" before the Reformation by some, although this was an anomaly[5] and continues in use by some Protestant churches. Hence, "holycatholic" becomes "holyChristian."[6]
Catholics believe the description "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" to be applicable only to theCatholic Church. They hold that "Christ established here on earth only one Church" and they believe in "the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church". While "there are numerous elements of sanctification and of truth which are found outside her structure", these, "as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity". The eastern Churches not infull communion with the Catholic Church thereby "lack something in their condition asparticular Churches". The communities born out of the 16th-centuryProtestant Reformation "do not enjoyapostolic succession in thesacrament ofOrders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constituent element of the Church."[7]
TheEastern Orthodox Church, in disagreement with the Catholic Church, regards itself as the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and hisapostles.[8] TheOriental Orthodox Church disagrees with both and claims to be the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and hisapostles, the "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" Church of the ancientChristian creeds and the only Church that has always kept the trueChristology and faith declared by the first three councils, the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and theCouncil of Ephesus affirmed by theChurch Fathers and thesacred tradition.
TheAugsburg Confession found within theBook of Concord, a compendium of belief of theLutheran Churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church."[9] When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession toCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, they believe to have "showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils."[9] As such, the Lutheran Churches traditionally hold that theirs represents thetrue visible Church.[10]
This mark derives from thePauline epistles, which state that the Church is "one".[11] In1 Cor. 15:9,Paul the Apostle spoke of himself as having persecuted "the church of God", not just the local church in Jerusalem but the same church that he addresses at the beginning of that letter as "the church of God that is in Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2).[non-primary source needed] In the same letter, he tells Christians: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Cor. 12:27), and declares that, "just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12).
InEph. 4:5–6, Paul writes: "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God andFather of all, who is over all and through all and in all." This list of factors making Christians one body, one church, is doubtless not meant to be exhaustive, saysFrancis A. Sullivan, but it affirms the oneness of the body, the Church, through what Christians have in common—what they havecommunion in.[11]
Elsewhere, Paul says: "There isneither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). This statement was about Christians as individuals, but it applied to them also as groups, as local church, whether composed mainly of Jewish or Gentile Christians.[11]
The wordholy in this sense means set apart for a special purpose by and forGod. The Church is holy because it has been set apart to do God's work, and because God is present in it.[12] Christians understand the holiness of the Church to derive from Christ's holiness.[13]
The wordcatholic is derived from theAncient Greek adjectiveκαθολικός (romanized:katholikos), meaning "general", "universal".[14][15] It is associated with the Greek adverbκαθόλου (katholou), meaning "according to the whole", "entirely", or "in general", a combination of the prepositionκατά meaning "according to" and the adjectiveὅλος meaning "whole".[16][17]
Applied to the Church, the adjective "catholic" means that in the Church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people.[18][19][20] The adjective can be applied not only to the Church as spread throughout the world but also to each local manifestation of the Church, in each of which nothing essential is lacking for it to be the genuine body of Christ.[20][21][22]
For his subjects, Roman EmperorTheodosius I restricted the term "catholic Christians" to believers in "the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holyTrinity", and applied the name "heretics" to others (Edict of Thessalonica of 27 February 380).[23]
This describes the Church's foundation and beliefs as rooted and continuing in the living tradition of the apostles of Jesus.[24] The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and theAssyrian Church of the East each claim to have preserved the original teaching of the apostles. They also have apostolic succession in that theirbishops derive their authority through a direct line oflaying on of hands from the apostles, a claim that they accept can be made by the other churches in this group. TheAnglican Communion, as well as many Lutheran Churches such as theChurch of Sweden, likewise teach the doctrine of apostolic succession.[25][26] Other Christian denominations, on the other hand, usually hold that what preserves apostolic continuity is the written word: as Bruce Milne put it, "A church is apostolic as it recognizes in practice the supreme authority of the apostolic scriptures."[27]
It is interesting to note, however, that the Nicene Creed, recited by Catholics in their worship, is also accepted by millions of other Christians as a testimony of their faith—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and members of many of the Reformed Churches.
When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession before Emperor Charles V in 1530, they carefully showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils and even the canon law of the Church of Rome. They boldly claim, "This is about the Sum of our Doctrine, in which, as can be seen, there is nothing that varies from the Scriptures, or from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers" (AC XXI Conclusion 1). The underlying thesis of the Augsburg Confession is that the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church. In fact, it is actually the Church of Rome that has departed from the ancient faith and practice of the catholic church (see AC XXIII 13, XXVIII 72 and other places).
In addition to the primary understanding of succession, the Lutheran confessions do express openness, however, to the continuation of the succession of bishops. This is a narrower understanding of apostolic succession, to be affirmed under the condition that the bishops support the Gospel and are ready to ordain evangelical preachers. This form of succession, for example, was continued by the Church of Sweden (which included Finland) at the time of the Reformation.
In Sweden the apostolic succession was preserved because the Catholic bishops were allowed to stay in office, but they had to approve changes in the ceremonies.
| Bible (Scriptures) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations | |||||||||
| History (timeline) (spread) |
| ||||||||
| Denominations (list,members) |
| ||||||||
| Theology |
| ||||||||
| Philosophy | |||||||||
| Other features |
| ||||||||
