The Distinctive Identity of the Church

A Constructive Study of the Post-Christendom Theologies of Lesslie Newbigin and John Howard Yoder

Nikolajsen

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498202084
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

An increasing number of theologians believe that the Western world has moved from an era of Christendom to an era of post-Christendom. This book goes to the heart of the debate related to this shift, asking, How are we to understand the distinctive identity of the church with special reference to its role in a post-Christendom society? It then presents an analysis of the work of the English Reformed theologian Lesslie Newbigin and the American Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, both of whom reflect on how we should understand this important question.At the end of The Distinctive Identity of the Church, the charge of sectarianism is discussed. It is argued that a missionary God sends the church to the world and, consequently, this sending should fundamentally determine its existence in the world. The book argues that the task that lies before the church in the Western world is not to bypass its distinctiveness with accusations of sectarianism, but to recapitulate an understanding of its own distinctiveness that should be seen as a precondition for its engagement in society. Such an ecclesiological position holds important potential for an understanding of the role of the church in pluralistic Western cultures.

part i

Introduction

1

Post-Christendom Ecclesiology

1.1 The Problem

The relationship between Christianity and culture is a classic theological hurdle and has, throughout history, been the subject of numerous discussions.1 Due to significant cultural and religious changes in the Western world, an intriguing discussion has emerged within this classic theological debate. An increasing number of theologians assert that the Western world has moved from, or is currently in transition from, an era of Christendom to one of post-Christendom, the magnitude and significance of which has been discussed in a number of books.2

Darrell L. Guder believes that there exist at least six key problems in this time of transition, claiming that the church in the era of Christendom was responsible for theological reductionism in terms of soteriology, eschatology, Pneumatology, Christology, missiology, and ecclesiology.3 According to Guder, it is important to come to terms with this theological reductionism. As it would not serve the purpose of this book to discuss all of these contentions at length, I will instead focus on one of these six key problems and present a discussion of the transition from the era of Christendom to post-Christendom, with special attention paid to the ecclesiological consequences of this shift.4

In an increasing number of books, this transition is discussed from the basis of historical, systematic theological, and practical theological perspectives. A common thread throughout these portrayals is that Western church history is divided into three eras: the pre-Christendom era, the Christendom era, and the post-Christendom era.5

The term “pre-Christendom” describes a specific relationship between the Christian church and its surrounding society in the period from the first century to the fourth century. During this period, the Christian church did not benefit from any societal privileges and had no notable political influence, being a persecuted church. In the beginning of the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine, who controlled the Western provinces in the Roman Empire, defeated another Western Roman Emperor, Maxentius, thereby gaining sovereignty over the sole Western Roman Empire.6 The Roman Emperor Licinius, after a victory over the Roman Emperor Maximinus II in 313 AD, gained sovereignty over the entire Eastern Roman empire. The two emperors, Licinius and Constantine, now lived side by side: Licinius in the East and Constantine in the West. In 324 AD, a war broke out between them, a war that Constantine won, which consequently led Constantine to become the sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.7

Previous to this, Constantine had for some time shown interest in the Christian religion and, after his “conversion” to Christianity, he became known as the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire.8 In 313 AD, Licinius and Constantine announced the Edict of Milan, in which the Christian religion was legalized and made equal with other religions in the Roman Empire. Hereby, the conditions for the church’s position in society were changed significantly, with two hundred and fifty years of persecution of the Christian church coming to an end.9 Constantine continued to show favoritism to the Christian church. For example, he issued “laws favouring the churches, lavished privileges and resources on them, [and] sought the counsel of bishops.”10 He was baptized on his deathbed, and then buried in the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople.11 The Constantinian endorsement of Christianity culminated in the Christian religion becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD, after the death of Constantine.12 Later, in 391 AD pagan worship was condemned.

With the aforementioned announcements of 313 AD and 380 AD, the so-called era of Christendom began.13 The church was now officially accepted and over time its wealth increased, it obtained political influence, and it became an important factor in society. As a result of Christianity becoming a politically and culturally established religion, the distinctions between church and society were weakened. Thus, in contrast to the pre-Christendom era, by the fourth century, Christians did not seem to be distinct. Robert A. Markus concludes that, already by the middle of the fourth century, very little separated a Christian from his pagan counterpart in the Roman Empire.14 Charlemagne, king of the Franks from 768 AD, and Emperor of the Romans from 800 AD until his death in 814 AD, identified his empire and its population as Christendom, and “[t]he terms Franci and christiani became almost identical as terms for his subjects. Baptism was a prerequisite for both. His wars of conquest were holy wars, and the conquered not only saw their territory incorporated into his empire but were also forced to become Christians. Conquest and Christianization went together and the preachers of the gospel worked in the service of the Frankish rulers.”15 In this way, the church and European society fused together as a single cultural, political and religious entity.16 As Michael W. Goheen describes the development: “The church moved from a marginal position to a dominant institution in society; from being socially, politically, and intellectually inferior to being in a position of power and superiority; from being economically weak and poor to being in a position of immense wealth; from being an oppressed minority to being the oppressive majority; from being a religio illicita to becoming the only religion in the civic community; from being resident aliens in a pagan environment to being an established church in a professedly Christian state.”17

The Middle Ages were similarly marked by a close relationship between the church and the European states represented by the Emperor, kings and princes of the European kingdoms. This led to power struggles. Could the Emperor be crowned without the Pope’s approval? Could the Pope take office without the Emperor’s approval? Could the kings and the Emperor appoint bishops? Regardless of these clashes, the close relationship between the church and the European states continued to express a synthesis between Christianity and culture, church and state.18 Thus, in the medieval period, the state was often viewed as the protector of the church. A clear expression of this can be seen during the Reformation in the German regions where the German princes, who in many cases were also bishops, protected the German national church.19 Hence, Arne Rasmusson refers to the medieval Christian world as the paradigmatic example of Christendom.20 The medieval fusion of church and society into a cultural, political, and religious unity is also referred to as corpus Christianum.21

A clear example of Christendom can also be found during the Reformation in my own country, Denmark, when Lutheranism became the state religion. In 1536, the Danish king took over the bishops’ property and their right to receive the church’s tithes, promising to both protect the country against outside attack and to be the supreme guarantor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. Until 1849, all citizens in Denmark were obliged to be members of the Lutheran Church of Denmark.22 They were also forced to be baptized...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Lesslie Newbigin
• Part III: John Howard Yoder
• Part IV: Toward a Post-Christendom Ecclesiology
• Conclusion
• Bibliography