Peter Lombard (ca. 1095-1160), bishop of Paris. Lombard taught theology at the school of Notre Dame and his text Four Books of Sentences was the key theology text of the Middle Ages. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
I was just pondering how all of us Protestants (Reformed, Lutheran, evangelicals et al.) are still members of the Latin/Western church (normally understood to be the Catholic church). As Providence would have it, as I’m reading Book 4 of Lombard’s Sentences (in my quest to become a mediaeval doctor of the Church), I came across the following citation from Lombard on and from Origen:
ORIGEN, ON LEVITICUS. And so those whom the Church’s sentence strikes and wounds according to what they deserve are outside also before God. Whoever did not deserve it, is wounded by the Church’s sentence, unless he holds it in contempt. Hence Origen: “One has gone out from truth, from faith, from charity: on this account, he goes out of the encampments of the Church, even if he is not cast out by the bishop’s voice. Likewise, on the contrary, another is sent outside by a judgement which is not right, but if he did not do anything to deserve to go out, he suffers no wound. And so, at times, one who is sent outside is within; and one who is outside, appears to be kept within.” (Lombard, Sentences, 4.18.7 (103).3)
In context this is referring to the binding and loosing power that the Catholic church believes priests have, in regard to forgiveness and confession of sins. But on analogy, it could also be observed, in principle, that there remains this type of “outside/within” dynamic even within the broader catholic Western church (and beyond). Of course, how this outside/within dynamic is affirmed, perspectivally, will determine who the outside and within are. From a historical perspective it would be the Catholic church within which the Protestant church, while outside, is still within in certain important ways. Indeed, in the way Luther had originally intended: to be a reformer from within rather than outside the church. Hence, Exsurge Domine notwithstanding, I would argue, de jure, the Protestants are still within even while outside.
I suppose I am too often uninterested in the inside-outside dynamic of what is called the Church; except that the Church as Christ’s body are those in whom he remains and who remain (abide in faith) in him. All other ground— however apparently foundational- is simply “sinking sand”. (But then, I also suppose it is not likely I would be found a good candidate for rule within such an inside-outside dynamic… or so, that has been the case.)
@Richard, I think really what I’m getting at through this post is that sectarianism among the churches, within the Church, should anametha.
Yes, Bobby… and understood as such. (I admit to opining… lamenting the experience of anathema put upon all because of the desecration of that which is holy by that which is flesh.)