Hill Road Journal

The Ecclesiology of the Alexandrian School: A Comparison of Origen and Athanasius

Nathan K. N.G.

Origen and Athanasius were two theological giants of the Alexandrian School. However, because of a difference in social background and personal concern, they adopted two distinct cosmologies. As a result, they developed their ecclesiologies in very different ways.

The Origenist ecclesiology is basically a dynamic model. Formerly composed of prelapsarian rational beings, the church originated early in the creation and is defined by its relationship with God. In the fall, it was divided into heavenly and earthly saints of various progressions. For Origen , the present worldly church is imperfect and needs to try her best to rise gradually back to God.

In contrast, the Athanasian ecclesiology is a static model. Being defined as Christian communities with orthodox faith transmitted from the apostles, the church began only after the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. By excluding all heresies and the unfaithful church goers as outsiders, Athanasius claims that the present church is perfect and not divided. It is relatively stable and does not have any advancement.

Ecclesiology may be said to be one of the doctrines where Origen and Athanasius diverge most.

Doctrine of the Church in the Teaching of Edward Irving

David Y. LEE

This paper attempts to re-construct the ecclesiology of Edward Irving (1792-1834) who was a Presbyterian minister and later founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church. It emphasizes two aspects of his ecclesiology. Firstly, Irving the Reformed-Pentecostal theologian understands the church as the body of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Owing to Irving's emphasis on the ascension of the humanity of Christ, Irving asserts the necessary work of the Spirit to empower the church as a witnessing and visible body of Christ to the world. Secondly, Irving the pre-millennial dispensationalist also understands the church dynamically as an eschatological community in holiness on the way to parousiaOwing to Irving's understanding of God's promise to Abraham being fulfilled in Christ's humanity, Israel is given a prominent role in God's eternal salvation plan. It is concluded that his ecclesiology is Christ-centered and Spirit-enabled resulting in a church that is reformed, charismatic and dispensational.

Tillich's Idea of the “Church on the Boundary”

Keith K. CHAN

This paper is intended to present the development of Paul Tillich's ecclesiology focusing on the shift of his theological foundation of the idea of church. In his earlier writings, Tillich emphasizes the dialectical relationship between religious socialism and the church. This relationship is grounded on the Christological and prophetic spirit. Under the Protestant principle, the Christian church is established in form-negating and form-creating power. However, in his later period, Tillich tries to build his ecclesiology within a pneumatological perspective in which spiritual presence as the essence of the church is emphasized in a sense that this dynamic and critical power is not limited to the boundary of Christian tradition. The latent and manifestation stages represent the dialectical relationship between organized church and other religious-secular groups. Although there is a theological shift in the development of Tillich's understanding of the church, certain important insights remain unchanged. Firstly, the Christian church must always be examined under the critical power in order that she will not be regarded as absolute. Secondly, in order to maintain this self-critical power, the dialogical and dialectical relationship with other groups – whether this group is the religious socialism in the early Tillich or other religious communities in the later Tillich – can enrich the resources of critical power of the Christian church. Lastly, under a Spirit-Christological perspective, the protestant principle and catholic substance are regarded as the critical and formative power respectively in Tillich's idea of the church. We will see that Tillich's idea of the church may provide an insight towards an ecumenical understanding of the church.

The Ecclesiology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Reflections on Sanctorum Communio

Andres S. TANG

The thesis of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Sanctorum Communio has been generally understood in terms of Ecclesiology for a long time. However, in recent studies, this is being corrected by a kind of theology of sociality. With this understanding, this paper tries to articulate the following theses implied in Bonhoeffer's Sanctorum Communio. On one hand, Christian theology is ecclesiological. This is because Christian theology is embedded in the church-community. In other words, it is this church-community which makes Christian theology possible. Beyond this there is no other legitimate starting point of doing theology. On the other hand, as the presupposition and subject matter of Christian theology, this church-community is the reality of God's revelation. How does the church-community serve as the reality of God's revelation? This involves an explicit discussion of the assertions in Bonhoeffer's Sanctorum Communio: Christ is the Christ of the church whereas the church is the church of the Christ. It follows that the Spirit is of the church and the church is of the Spirit. In sum, Bonhoeffer is not merely interested in Ecclesiology but rather the ecclesiological nature of Christian theology in his Sanctorum Communio.

Community and Individuality—A Confucian Ecclesiology of Wu Leichuan

Kwong-pui CHAN

This article examines the Ecclesiology of Wu Leichuan, a famous Confucian Christian in the 30's to 40's of the twentieth century. Wu's Ecclesiology was a response to the discussions on the relationship of community and individuality during his time. Wu, in seeking to establish a contextual Ecclesiology, tried to integrate the Confucian understanding of “gung” (public interest) and “sy” (private interest) into Christianity. Wu's Ecclesiology was not based on a perspective of nature but a perspective of praxis. In this perspective, the Church is not a “being” but a “becoming”. Wu suggested that the Christian community should open themselves to “gung” and participate in the political social movement. In this process, when the Church gives up her “sy” for the “gung” , she fulfills her mission and becomes herself. In Wu's Ecclesiology the danger of the “ecclesiocentralism” is prevented, and the value of the world is confirmed by its indivisible relationship with the Church.

A Comparison between Xun-Zi's Social Ontology and Colin E. Gunton's Ecclesiological Ontology

Andy S. CHIU

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his doctoral dissertation Sanctorum Communio, sets the doctrine of the church in the midst of a theology of sociality, Gunton also affirms the greatest significance of the concept of sociality for the life of the Christian community. However, their similarity cannot overshadow their difference. It should be noted that Bonhoeffer's concept of sociality is involved in his Christocentic theology only, while Gunton comprehends the sociality of the Christian community in reference to his Trinitarian theology, as well as the doctrine of the humanity of Jesus. On Gunton's view, traditional ecclesiology puts much emphasis on the divine Christ, and this has thus often led to the church making arrogant claims for authority or even infallibility. Consequently, this divinization process of the church would make it lose its true nature, which is manifested by its ontological structure of being-for-the- other and unity-in-diversity. Therefore, Gunton argues that a greater stress on the humanity of Jesus and the social being of the Triune God is crucial to the development of ecclesiology. The being of the Triune God must be seen as the ontological foundation of the being of the church. However, the aim of this paper is not to make a comparison between Bonhoeffer and Gunton, but a comparison between Xun-zi's non-substantial understanding of sociality and Gunton's substantial understanding of the ontology of the church. Concerning the ontology of community, both Xun-zi and Gunton stress the primacy of otherness and relationality, but they develop these two notions by different methods, namely a non-substantial view and a substantial view. In Xun-zi's world, community relationship is inter -subjectively and culturally constituted. As a result, Xun-zi's ontology of community puts more emphasis on the primacy of dialogical inter-subjectivity instead of the primacy of otherness and particularity. Dialogical inter-subjectivity is an immediate relation of like-minded subjects. Underlying this is a relationship of undifferentiated sameness. In contrast to Xun-zi's non-substantial view of sociality, Gunton establishes the being of the Christian community on the foundation of the substantiality of the three particular Persons, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As a result, he can argue from the emphasis on the particularity and ontological distinctions of the divine persons for an ecclesiology of unity in otherness and diversity.

The Church: Opus Dei and opus hominum

KUNG Lap Yan

The Church is called by God to witness to his salvation and graciousness, and the emergence of the Church is brought about by him. On one hand, no matter how miserable church life may be, it will not damage God's salvation, for salvation is God's gracious work. On the other, the earthly church cannot not witness, for this is its nature. This paper explores how the earthly church witnesses to God's salvation in three dimensions; namely, a charismatic community, a spiritual community and a moral community. In addition, this paper points out the dangers challenging the church of Hong Kong; namely, apoliticization, middle-class ideology, and the loss of language. However, it has to be admitted that no matter how hard the earthly church witnesses to God's salvation, it does not imply that the world will repent. Can the earthly church become St. Benedict (in A. MacIntyre's word) in this Dark Age?

Old Wine in New Wineskins: A Preliminary Study on the New Apostolic Movement and the Challenge of Complexity Leadership

Hio-kee OOI

The purpose of this article is to point out the emergence of the New Apostolic Reformation/Movement, and to give a brief introduction to its several characteristics and its advocates. The article points to some evidences to prove the inner connection of its teachings to the hundred -year old Pentecostal and charismatic movement; namely the restoration theory, the Latter Rain Movement, and the Third Wave Charismatic Movement. It then postulates the thesis of this article, that is the New Apostolic Movement's biggest impact on contemporary churches does not come about through its theological deviance (if there is any), but through the paradigm shift in leadership models from linear to nonlinear, from top-down-hierarchical to bottom-up-informal emergent, from denominational to networking. Therefore, in terms of theology, the New Apostolic Movement is filling itself with the old wine of Pentecostal/Charismatic teaching, but in terms of its form, it is a new wineskin, which is fully adapting to a postmodern, e-formational, networking society. The discourse of this article will be largely a delineation of the new apostolic phenomenon and its network, a search for its historical roots, and a proposal of an alternative interpretation other than the theological.

Rethinking Sinful Flesh, Sinful Humanity and the Problem of Method: A Response to Professors Lai Pan-chiu and So Yuen-tai

Andres S. TANG

This paper is a response to “Sinful Flesh, Sinful Nature and Tathāgatagarbha: An Investigation on Christological Anthropology” and “Reflections on Christian Mahāyāna Theology: A Response to Andres SK Tang” by Professors Lai and So respectively. 1. The consequence of employing On the Awakening of Mahāyāna(Mahayana Awakening of Faith) to understand the humanity of Christ leads unavoidably to Docetism since the mind of perishing is not the essential structure of the mind of purity. 2. The sinful human body/flesh that Edward Irving speaks about is exactly the sinful human nature. According to contemporary biblical studies, the sinful flesh of Christ means that the humanity of Christ, including his flesh, is sinful. 3. Irving considers that the person of Christ is not constituted by his humanity but out of his obedience to and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Hence any type of understanding of the humanity of Christ in terms of “autonomous nature” is to be rejected. 4. It is not necessary for us to understand the Christology of the Chalcedon Creed as positing either the sinful human nature or the sinless human nature of Christ since the Chalcedon Creed merely speaks of the relation between the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ. 5. Concerning the round and perfect teaching, the round and prefect in terms of salvation and the round and perfect in terms of the eschaton are not mutually exclusive. The former is directed towards the latter, while the latter implies the former. 6. Finally, clarifications are made on the translation of hypostasis and the basic status of the doctrines of momentary mind of ignorance and Dharmata and Ab-grund(non-ground, no original) in Tien-tai Buddhism.