Nielsen’s Nook

In this second part of a three part post, we continue reflecting on a fourth century A.D. quote from Cyril of Jerusalem regarding catholicity (included again for your reference) that laid out four aspects of catholicity. The first we considered was that of geographic ubiquity. Here we’ll consider the aspects of theological world view and discipline as something that circumscribe catholic church life.

The Church is called ‘catholic’ or ‘universal’ because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name ‘catholic’ is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title ‘catholic’ because it heals and cures without restriction every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism [(i.e., spiritual gift)].^[1]

Theological Worldview

Historically the church has sought to form the minds of God’s people to the mind of Christ. There are certainly times when that was obviously generally not the case, while there are glorious moments when we see a more pervasive Christian worldview at the fore. How we think about this world, its resources, heaven, hell, judgment, death, money and time for example matter and are integrally related to discipleship or “religious obedience.”

Discipleship of All Kinds and Classes of People

Religious obedience has always been a mark of the catholic church. This has never been more evident than today by remotion. Many of the visible churches in the United States have failed to discipline (lat. disciplinare, to teach) their members and especially their leaders. Consequently, those churches slide off into a slough of despond and self-absorption; this results in anti-catholic events such as schism. Joyful religious obedience is then something of the atmosphere of catholic church life. Remove or pollute it and suffocation, retardation, and destruction result to all members without distinction.

Look for part 3, the final part, tomorrow…

^[1] The Catechetical Instructions of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, d. 386, Catechesis 18, 23-5: Patrologia Graeca  33, 1043-50. Tr. The Office of Readings according to the Roman Rite (Slough, 1983), p. 926. As cited in G. R. Evans and J. Robert Wright, The Anglican Tradition : A Handbook of Sources (London: SPCK, 1991), 27.