Warring, suffering and triumphant Church
The community of all believers in the Ekklesia as a whole is traditionally seen as:
- Warring Church ( ecclesia militans ), made up of contemporary Christians ;
- Church in suffering or atonement ( ecclesia patiens or ecclesia poenitens ), Church in hope ( ecclesia exspectans ) or Church in purgatory ( ecclesia in purgatorio ), to which the poor souls in purgatory are counted;
- triumphant church ( ecclesia triumphans ), which includes those whom the church believes are in the immediate contemplation of God.
These terms are often used in the context of the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the communion of saints and the doctrine of last things . Although Christians are naturally separated by death, they belong to the one Church.
meaning
The Latin word militare initially means “to serve as a soldier”, but it also assumed the meaning of a more general “fighting” meant here. Christians in the world ( ecclesia militans , "the warring church") fight on many fronts, so against personal sin , for the spread of faith ( mission ), against (in their opinion) sinful or perverted structures of all kinds, for religious Penetration of their own families as well as of society as a whole and the public space etc. This happens in the hope of going to heaven after their death and becoming part of the triumphant church ( ecclesia triumphans , from Latin triumphare "to triumph, celebrate triumph, rejoice") to become.
History of theology
According to an idea that goes back to St. Augustine , the Church is realized in two parts: a part “which in heaven always remained connected to God, his Creator, and never had to experience in itself that a member of him fell; this part lives in the holy angels in eternal bliss and comes [...] to the aid of the other part who is still on a pilgrimage on earth; these two parts will one day also be one in the common enjoyment of eternity, yes they are already one through the bond of love, a union that has no other purpose than the worship of God ”.
One of the earliest mentions of the pair of terms ecclesia militans and ecclesia triumphans can be found in the 12th century by Alanus ab Insulis . Since Alanus was known for his metaphors from the military field (he writes, among others, of the militia angelorum ), it is assumed that he brought up this pair of terms.
This thought is continued with Simon von Tournai : The ecclesia militans fights against sin and the devil on this earth, while the ecclesia triumphans is enthroned in heaven and is the mother of the fighting church.
In the Church Constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council in 1964, the systematic terms are no longer used, but what is meant is treated descriptively in numbers 49 and 50, the earthly church is called the "Church of the Pilgrims" ( Ecclesia viatorum , LG 50): "Until the Lord comes in His Majesty [...], some of his disciples make a pilgrimage on earth, others have been separated from this life and are being purified, others are glorified and see clearly the Triune God himself as he is." The Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992 indicates the threefold reality by speaking of “three estates of the Church” which “together constitute the one Church”.
liturgy
In the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church , this communion of the Church is commemorated in particular on the solemnity of All Saints 'Day (triumphant Church) and All Souls' Day (suffering Church); with the invocation of the saints and the intercessory prayer for the living and the dead, this also takes place in the prayer of every holy mass . Originally, the Feast of Christ the King , which preceded the double funeral of All Saints and All Souls, focused on the quarreling churches in particular.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Augustine: Enchiridion de fide, spe et caritate 15 . The addition (the quarreling and the triumphant church) is not found in the Latin original and apparently comes from the editor of the German version - cf. the Latin text [1] , caput XIX., p. 71.
- ^ Alanus: Distinctiones dictorum theologicarum sive summa Quot modis . PL 210, 852A
- ^ Nikolaus Häring: Auctoritas in the social and intellectual structure of the twelfth century . In: Albert Zimmermann (ed.): Social orders in the self-understanding of the Middle Ages . 2nd half volume, Walter de Gruyter, 1980, ISBN 9783110862324 , p. 517 ff., On the subject cf. P. 521.
- ↑ Simon von Tournai: Disputationes 80, 2
- ^ According to Häring, Alanus: Distinctiones PL 210, 852B and 745A.
- ↑ LG 49
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 954 + 962.