Vestigia ecclesiae

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“Nevertheless… even today we do not deny the papists what the Lord wanted to leave among them as traces of the church from the breakdown. ... Often buildings are torn down so that foundations and ruins remain. Likewise, God ... but wanted that a half-collapsed building remained from the devastation. "(Institutio IV, 2, 11)

Vestigia ecclesiae (Latin: “Traces of Church”) is a term coined by Jean Calvin , which is used in some denominations to make it clear that there is a church outside of one's own religious community.

Jean Calvin

In his main work, Institutio Christianae Religionis, Calvin dealt with the question of whether the papal church is actually a church at all. The marks ( signa , nota ) of the true church, he said, were missing: the gospel was not properly preached and the sacraments were not properly administered, both in theory and in practice. Nevertheless, unlike Philipp Melanchthon , Calvin still recognized elements of the church in the papal church, which he called traces ( vestigia ), occasionally also remains ( reliquia ). These terms were meant to be derogatory, as Calvin's attitude towards the Roman Catholic Church was negative. They have the connotation of a ruin lying in ruins, so that one can ask whether vestigia actually means being a church or rather a reminder of a former, but now lost, church.

World Council of Churches

At the first WCC assembly in Amsterdam in 1948 the question arose whether the delegates could recognize the other churches as churches; in the past people had mostly denied being a church. Willem Adolf Visser 't Hooft , the general secretary who comes from the Evangelical Reformed tradition, suggested “that every church in its sister churches should at least recognize the vestigia ecclesiae in the council, i.e. the fact that the church of Christ is somehow also present in them . "

The Toronto Declaration (1950) developed this idea, with the use of language between "tracks" and "elements" varies: "It is generally taught in the various churches that other churches certain elements of the true Church have, in some traditions vestigia Ecclesiae called Word proclamation, biblical interpretation, administration of the sacraments are enumerated. These elements are by no means “pale shadows”; they contained a promise and were signs of hope. The metaphor is turned positively: the churches should follow these traces in their sister churches ( The ecumenical movement is based upon the conviction that these “traces” are to be followed ).

The Toronto Declaration distinguished itself from the negative connotation that the term has in Calvin and explained: “What are these elements? Not dead remnants of the past, but powerful instruments through which God does his work. "

Roman Catholic Church

In the first half of the 20th century, Catholic theologians adopted Calvin's motif of the vestigia . Yves Congar dedicated a separate article to the term in 1952. Instead of “traces”, Congar preferred to speak of “elements” of being a church, and this is also the language used by the Second Vatican Council:

  • The Church of Jesus Christ “is realized ( subsistit ) in the Roman Catholic Church ... That does not exclude the fact that outside its structure there are diverse elements of sanctification and truth to be found which, as gifts peculiar to the Church of Christ, push towards Catholic unity. "( Lumen gentium 8)
  • "In addition, some, even many, and significant elements or goods, from which the church as a whole is built and gains its life, can also exist outside the visible limits of the Catholic Church ..." ( Unitatis redintegratio 3)

Walter Kasper wrote an article on the ecclesiastical character of non-Catholic churches during the council. In it he explained Calvin's term vestigia ecclesiae and traced the change in meaning that this term had undergone in the ecumenical movement: If the "traces" for Calvin were rather dead remains of the past, in the 20th century they are seen as "promising points of contact."

literature

  • Sandra Arenas: Merely Quantifiable Realities? The 'Vestigia Ecclesiae' in the Thought of Calvin and its Twentieth-Century Reception . In: Gerard Mannion, Eddy van der Borght: John Calvin's Ecclesiology: Ecumenical Perspectives . T&T Clark International, London 2011, pp. 69-98.
  • Eva-Maria Faber : Calvinus catholicus. On the reception of Calvin in the Roman Catholic Church using the example of pneumatology, ecclesiology and the teaching of offices . In: Marco Hofheinz, Wolfgang Lienemann, Martin Sallmann (eds.): Calvin's legacy: Contributions to the history of Johannes Calvin's impact . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, pp. 45–75.
  • Yves Congar: Speaking of “vestigia ecclesiae” . In: Vers l'unité chrétienne 39, 1952, 4 f.
  • Walter Kasper: The ecclesiological character of the non-Catholic churches . In: Theologische Viertelschrift 145, 1965, pp. 42–62.
  • Peter Neuner : «Churches and Church Communities» . In: Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift 36 (1985), pp. 97-109.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandra Arenas: Merely Quantifiable Realities? London 2011, p. 70 f.
  2. ↑ Sandra Arenas: Merely Quantifiable Realities? London 2011, p. 71.
  3. ^ Eva-Maria Faber: Calvinus catholicus , Göttingen 2012, p. 62.
  4. ^ Eva-Maria Faber: Calvinus catholicus , Göttingen 2012, p. 62 f.
  5. ^ Eva-Maria Faber: Calvinus catholicus , Göttingen 2012, p. 63.
  6. ^ Eva-Maria Faber: Calvinus catholicus , Göttingen 2012, p. 64 f.