Church reform

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Church reform aims - like all reforms - to change the condition of the one church, wanted or founded by Jesus Christ in its universal unity or one of its forms in its diversity, in particular reforms of its constitution (s), organization (s) and Basic accomplishments (e.g. liturgy) and the associated attempt to authentically restore their unity ( ecumenism ) and their mission . Depending on the area or aspect concerned, one speaks, for example, of liturgical reform, clerical reform or order and monastery reform.

Biblical understanding of reform and Pauline reforms

In the Bible the word comes in the Latin translation reformatio in the New Testament , for example in Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 12,2) ago. Paul focuses on the aspect of creative renewal in Christ and unity in Christ. In this respect, the decision called for by Paul and made by the apostles' council to forego circumcision in the context of the mission to the Gentiles can be seen as the first “church reform” in accordance with the universal mission and unity, if one disregards the fact that this is in keeping with the self-understanding of the early church after it was still a Christian attempt at reforming the synagogue .

Understanding of reform by the church fathers and reforms in the early church

Both the Greek and the Latin church fathers usually associate the terms reformare and reformatio with the biblical-salvation-historical idea of ​​a personal renewal as well as the idea of ​​the achievement of a qualitatively better condition. This idea of ​​a reformatio in melius can be found in particular in Tertullian , Ambrosius of Milan and Augustine of Hippo . Even if the phrase " Ecclesia semper reformanda " , which is often ascribed to Augustine, is not found in his work, he has also defined the term "reformatio" several times for the church. He stated that reform of the church means a return of the "Church of Cain" to the "Church of Abel", from the civitas terrena to the Civitas Dei . In particular, he understood monastic life as a reformatio that subjects the monks to the “law” of Christ in a special way.

Medieval church reforms

In the Middle Ages , the word reformare was increasingly understood in social processes as reparare (to restore) and renovare (to renew), also in relation to the church. It is not about the restoration of an earlier or the creation of a future condition, but about an improvement that serves the cause. Since the High and Late Middle Ages in particular , the idea of ​​having to reform the church in this sense has emerged. In this case, this concerns the state of the church itself or the church constitution in particular. Thus, for the first time, it is about church reforms in the narrower sense.

Church reform as monastery reform (910–1122)

Around the year 900 the external and internal threat to the medieval church became particularly strong and the crisis of the church became evident. Archbishop Herivaeus of Reims spoke at the Synod of Trosly in 909 that the Christian religion was wavering, that the world was "close to perdition" and that this was particularly evident in the state of the monasteries:

“Nowhere in the monasteries are the prescriptions of the rule observed; nowhere are there still canonically appointed heads of the abbeys. [...] Secular lords rule most of the monasteries. "

But precisely because the monasteries were assigned a special role in the reform of the church, as was the case with Christianization, the reform efforts began in the monasteries. It was based essentially on the Cluny Abbey ( Cluniac Reform ) founded in 910 and expanded to include Brogne Abbey and Gorze Abbey ( Gorzer Reform ) and Hirsau ( Hirsauer Reform ) as well as the English and Italian reform monks.

Church reform and the High Middle Ages (1046–1215)

Precisely the peace movements, which saw the universal purification of the church as a prerequisite for peace, result from the new monastic and hermitic reform ideals. In addition to the monastery reform and monastic reform, there was now also a clerical reform, which the so-called German reform popes (1046-1057) and the Synod of Sutri in 1046 made a concern of. Hermann Jakobs characterized it as an "early reform".

Pope Gregory VII was a great reformer until his death in 1085 , which is why the so-called Gregorian reforms are named after him .

Church reform and reform councils (from 1215)

Since 1215, papal councils have been convened for this purpose and the term extended to the entire church and finally addressed in the reform councils of the 15th century. In fact, an abundance of religious and diocese reforms and reforms of entire regional churches were carried out. However, there was no reform of the church as a whole and so the reform of the Catholic Church that was actually planned in the 16th century culminated in the Reformation .

Reformation history

Catholic Reform (from 1545)

Church reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries

Catholic developments between modernism and traditionalism

Pius IX began a struggle against theological currents known as modernism during his long tenure (1846-1878) . The " Syllabus errorum " (1864) is considered a milestone in this struggle . His successor Leo XIII. and Pius X (the latter called modernism the "reservoir of all heresies ") continued this struggle; Benedict XV (1914 to 1922) contained the anti-modernist aspirations of integralist circles. Many anti-modernists at the time saw their struggle within the church as church reform.

Liturgical movement and liturgical reform

See also

literature

  • Erwin Iserloh : Luther between Reform and Reformation , 1968
  • Martin H. Jung : Reformation and Confessional Age (1517–1648) , 2012
  • Jürgen Miethke , Lorenz Weinrich : Sources on Church Reform in the Age of the Great Councils of the 15th Century (Selected Sources on German History in the Middle Ages; Volume 38, Part 2), 2002
  • Erich Garhammer (Ed.): Ecclesia semper reformanda: Church reform as a permanent task (Volume 2 of Würzburg Theology), 2006

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roland Hardmeier: Geliebte Welt , 2012, ISBN 3-86-256026-0 , p. 155
  2. ↑ Basic historical concepts , ed. by Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, Reinhart Koselleck, 2004, p. 314 ( ISBN 3608915001 )
  3. ^ Alberto Melloni: Continuity versus history. In: Giancarlo Corsi (Ed.): Reform and Innovation in an Unstable Society , 2005, ISBN 3828203027 , p. 42
  4. ^ Werner Goez: Church reform and investiture dispute. 910-1122. 2008, ISBN 3170204815 , p. 14 f.
  5. ^ Hermann Jakobs: Church reform and the high Middle Ages. 1046-1215. 1999, ISBN 3-48-649714-6 , pp. 19f.
  6. ↑ omnium haereseon collectum
  7. ↑ See also Mariano Delgado : The Borromeo encyclical 'Editae saepe' Pius' X. of May 26, 1910 and the consequences. In: Mariano Delgado, Markus Ries (ed.): Karl Borromäus and the Catholic Reform: Files of the Freiburg Symposium for the 400th return of the canonization of the patron saint of Catholic Switzerland. 2010, pp. 340-364