Opening a book by Henri Blocher is like being invited to a wedding dinner. It is a theologically and culturally rich, tasty, and challenging experience. So, the release of his latest book La doctrine de l’Église e des sacrements, vol. 1 (Vaux-sur-Seine: Edifac, 2023), is a feast of theology.
The book consists of two parts. In the first, Blocher expounds on the Biblical data, while in the second, he analyses three types of church conceptions and models: the Catholic, the Reformed (paedobaptist), and the Confessing (credobaptist). Attention will be concentrated on the section regarding Roman Catholic ecclesiology.
Blocher acknowledges that the Roman Catholic view of the church has ‘great persuasive power’ (p.139) but is based on ‘insufficient’ Biblical foundations that have led to ‘ambiguities in its construction’ (p.113). He suggests four observations for critically evaluating Roman Catholic ecclesiology from a Biblical perspective. Let us briefly review them:
1. The too-human exaltation of the human (pp. 140-148)
As the Bible teaches, one recognises the tree by its fruit. If one looks at the ‘products’ of Catholic ecclesiology such as the inflated Mariology and the institutionalised papacy, one cannot help but take note of the departure from Biblical principles that led to the ‘impossibility of scriptural verification of dogmas’ (p.141). In Roman Catholicism, Biblical data are used in a manner that robs Scripture of its full sovereignty as the divine voice over the church. Historical processes and evolutions of dogma have taken over from Biblical ‘evidence’, resulting in a construction that has lost sight of the roots of God’s word.
2. The attack on God’s rights (pp.148-151)
Blocher aligns himself with the classical Protestant critique that Roman Catholicism attacks God’s freedom and robs Him of His glory, which is then attributed to the creature, of whom Mary is the emblem and the church the institutional embodiment. The three great maxims of the Protestant Reformation (sola Scriptura, sola fide and sola gratia) capture the heart of the evangelical critique in that they want to safeguard God’s ‘jealousy’ (p.149).
3. The Monophysite (one nature, namely the divine one) temptation (pp.151-152)
The concept of the church as a continued incarnation touches the doctrine of Christ and, in particular, the hypostatic union. In Roman Catholicism, a ‘larval monophysitism’ manifests itself, i.e. divine traits that override human ones are attributed to the church. The disagreements between Protestants and Catholics have their root in the different role attributed to Christ’s humanity and, therefore, must come to terms with the interpretation of the Chalcedonian dogma, whereby the two natures of Christ are confessed as related ‘unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably’. The point is that the problem with Roman Catholicism is not only in the different understandings of Christ’s work but also in His person. The overemphasis on Christ’s divinity extended to the Church is at stake. According to Blocher, ‘Roman theology is too little Trinitarian’ (p.156).
4. The Weakening of the Significance of the Biblical ‘once-and-for-all’ (pp.152-156)
The last suggested critical remark concerns the erroneous Roman Catholic understanding of the Biblical éphapax: once-and-for-all. Driven by an eagerness to actualise and make grace present in the church’s action, Roman Catholicism makes fluid and open-ended what should instead be considered a once-and-for-all event: both the once-and-for-all events of the cross and the ascension of Jesus Christ mark a watershed in the economy of salvation. Since the Roman church is thought of as prolonging the incarnation, Christ’s vicar is the pope, and Christ’s grace is the sacraments. Quoting Tertullian, Blocher argues that the only vicar of the risen Christ is the Holy Spirit (p.154) and that, if anything, the only prolongation that took place is the word of Christ, i.e. Scripture.
Blocher’s analysis of Roman Catholic ecclesiology should be read and studied by all evangelicals who aspire to ‘dialogue’ with Roman Catholicism at every level: local, national, and international. With his style and finesse, Henri Blocher has enriched contemporary evangelical theology with a contribution that lives up to his reputation.
