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Humanity & the Church

Introduction

Humanity and the Church or, to cast them in more theological terms, theological anthropology and ecclesiology, are highly related doctrines that often get overlooked in the Christian theological community. First providing a brief history to setup a framework for theological discourse, I seek to better understand what humanity is in the eyes of and relationship to God and to define what the Church is and is called to be in the world. With a clear framework in place and the doctrines sufficiently defined, I will place Christian anthropology into conversation with ecclesiology and tease out the common theological thread in both sources that lead to a theology of Divine relationship as the true telos of the human creature and the Church.

One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

Introduction

The church universal and especially the unique, individual congregations of the church have had many meanings in the history of humankind and the history of the church. Many have seen the church as an arm of oppressive government; baptizing war, causing destruction, and stifling academic and scientific progress. For others, the church in its global and local form is a tool for political and social agendas; an agent of governmental and societal “progress”. For the faithful the church is an educator, a social club, a place of worship, a place of edification, a place of conflict, a place of love, and much, much more. The entities known as “the church” over the last many thousand years have at one time or another been negative and positive influences towards the reconciling efforts of our loving God.

The Christology and Ecclesiological Vision of Paul in Philippians and Colossians with a Practical Application for the Modern Church

Introduction

Both the epistles to the Philippians and Colossians pivot on hymns seeped in Paul’s Christology. The hymn in Phil 2:6-11 focuses on the unexpected nature of the Messiah who fulfills the prophesies of the prophets while the hymn in Col 1:15-23 focuses on the divinity of Christ and his preeminent status before all things in heaven and earth. Surrounding the two hymns, Paul’s exhortations for new patterns of life and he and his fellow servants’ Christ-template narratives call the “faithful brothers and sisters in Christ”¹ in both Philippi and Colossae to a new way life.