Ecclesia (Church)
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Ecclesia (or Ekklesia) in Christian theology denotes both a particular body of faithful people, and the whole body of the faithful. Latin ecclesia, from Greek ekklesia had an original meaning of "assembly, congregation, council", literally "convocation", see Ecclesia (ancient Athens).
The term may sometimes include the Old Covenant (pre-Christian Judaism). According to Saint Gregory (P. L., LXXVII, 740), the Church is composed of "Sancti ante legem, sancti sub lege, sancti sub gratia ("The saints before the Law, the saints under the Law, and the saints under grace"). This is the basic definition of the Church which underpins much of John Calvin's writings.
More narrowly, it may signify the whole body of Christian faithful, including not merely the members of the Church who are alive on earth but those, too, who have fallen asleep in Christ, and as such form part of the communion of saints, considered the "Body of Christ". In this sense, the Church is divided into the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant (Being those Christians on Earth, in Purgatory and in Heaven respectively. Note that only the first and last of these groups are commonly acknowledged by Protestants.)
Still more narrowly, it may signify the worldwide Church Militant.
Biblically speaking, the disciples of a single locality are often referred to in the New Testament as a church (Revelation 2:18, Romans 16:4, Acts 9:31), and arguably Saint Paul even applies the term to disciples belonging to a single household (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, ). Some theologians (e.g. Baptists, Congregationalists) accept this local sense as the only valid application of the term 'Church', in so doing rejecting wholesale the notion of a universal Church. These people argue that all uses of ekklesia in the New Testament are speaking of either a particular local group, or of the notion of 'church' in the abstract, and never of a single, worldwide Church.
Finally, 'The Church' may sometimes be used, especially in Catholic theology, to designate those who exercise the office of teaching and ruling the faithful, the Ecclesia Docens, or again (more rarely) the governed as distinguished from their pastors, the Ecclesia Discens.
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