Quadruple office

The doctrine of the fourfold ministry is understood to mean a special ecclesiastical understanding of ministry , which occurs particularly in the apostolic communities . In some of them it is still a profile-building specificity.

Quadruple office in Calvinism

→ Main article : Doctrine of four offices

Johannes Calvin's “quadruple office” assumes that preachers , teachers, presbyters and deacons will have equal rights , with all of them forming the “spiritual office”. This results in a special upgrading of the laity in the structures of the Reformed churches .

Quadruple office in the Catholic-Apostolic congregations

The theology for the quadruple office was developed in the Catholic Apostolic communities from the letter to the Ephesians . It says in Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets put it one, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers ... . The biblical images of the four rivers of paradise from Gen 2: 10–14  EU and the four animals from Rev 4 : 6–8  EU were used for biblical legitimation .

According to the doctrine of the fourfold office, there are three degrees of ordination (angel (community bishop), priest, deacon), but also a vertical character assignment to one of the so-called four official characters, elders (corresponds to the apostle at the community level ), prophet , evangelist and shepherd.

Quadruple office in apostolic communities

The attitude of the other groups belonging to the spectrum of the apostolic communities is very disparate. Several communities recognize this teaching to this day, in several communities this teaching is no longer part of the teaching for historical or exegetical reasons. The doctrine of the fourfold ministry was also the cause of tension and divisions in the apostolic movement.

criticism

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The doctrine of the fourfold office is considered by many exegetes to be a wrong interpretation of Ephesians 4. Rather, one could speak of a fivefold office here, because the teachers have their own character. Furthermore, this does not refer to ordained offices in the congregation, but to a service of the congregation to involve everyone in the work of the congregation according to their dispositions and characters. In charismatic circles, however, the doctrine of the fourfold office is widely accepted, but without considering it as ordained offices.

literature

• Thomas Carlyle : The Apostolic Ministry. Its original shape, its decay, and its restoration. Brandis, Berlin 1850 (reprinted 2004, PDF file ).