The truly ‘catholic’ church

The adjective ‘catholic’ and the noun ‘catholicity’ have a bittersweet usage in ordinary evangelical language. They seem too strictly associated with the reality of Roman Catholicism to be used in a way free from cumbersome superstructures of meaning.

The Bible never uses the expression kath’olon (according to the whole) in the theological sense. The only explicit reference, which is used in a negative form, is in Acts 4:18. The profane use of kath’olon has a variegated range including the meaning of ‘total’ and ‘complete’. In borrowing the term, the church began to understand it as describing the universality of the church (made of Jews and Gentiles), the fullness of the gospel (once and for all delivered to the saints), and the global extension of the people of God (from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth).

Catholicity always in context

In the post-apostolic age, the word ‘catholic’ was included in the Apostles’ Creed as a mark of the church of Jesus Christ. The Nicene Creed defines it as ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church’. Catholicity was affirmed not in isolation, but in the context of the other three dimensions.

In this sense the catholicity of the church was signified and limited by making reference to its unity (i.e. there is one people of God), holiness (i.e. the people of God as set apart by Him and for Him), and apostolicity (i.e. the people of God follow the teachings of the apostles, namely the Bible).

If catholicity takes precedence over apostolicity (i.e. biblical teaching), it becomes universalism. If holiness is left out, catholicity becomes a box void of spiritual content. If catholicity loses its connection to unity, it explodes into a myriad of self-referential units.

The Romanisation of catholicity

Out of such a looser view, catholicity was deeply impacted by the addition of a fifth mark of the church: its centring on the church of Rome, the see of Rome, the Roman authorities.

Catholicity absorbed a Roman element that became so intertwined with it that it gave rise to Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicity is a long-established union of catholic universality and Roman particularity, catholic plurality and Roman unity, catholic comprehensiveness and Roman distinctiveness, the catholic totus (whole) and the Roman locus (place), catholic fullness and Roman partiality, catholic breadth and Roman narrowness, catholic elasticity and Roman rigidity, the catholic universe and the Roman centre, catholic organism and Roman organisation, the catholic faith and the Roman structure.

The rise of the papacy became the climax of the Romanisation of Catholicism. The sacraments were used to divide rather than to unite Christians. Accounts of the Mary of the Bible were idealised, which reflected the Roman Catholic synthesis. The cumulative argument presented is that Rome wants to tie its romanitas (made of imperial structure, political power, hierarchical organisation, extra-biblical traditions) to its status as the only church of Jesus Christ where the fullness of grace can be found. By wanting to be Roman, the church ceased to be catholic. The Roman mark was a spurious addition that altered the nature of the catholicity of the church.

Back to apostolic (i.e. biblical) catholicity

The Roman Catholicity was given primacy over its biblical catholicity, thus modifying the fundamental commitments of the Roman Church. The Protestant Reformation was the attempt to recover the apostolic catholicity away from its Roman/imperial/sacramental/ hierarchical tenets and reconnecting it to the mark of apostolicity: the formal principle of the authority of Scripture and the material principle of justification by faith alone.

The Reformation did not break away from the church; in fact, it recovered the church by breaking from the bondage of Romanism and by restoring the apostolicity of catholicity. This is not to say that the Reformation always and consistently appreciated the unity of the church, but its main concern was to radically question the Romanisation of catholicity.

The Reformation reclaimed the catholicity of the evangelical faith by showing its faithfulness to Scripture and its substantial continuity with the Church Fathers, and by rediscovering the universal priesthood of believers away from the Roman, sacramental, and hierarchical division between clergy and laity. This is a far better biblical way to honour the catholicity of the church.