(So good it's worth quoting the whole section of this chapter) "The Composition and Structure of the Eucharistic Community as Reflections of Catholicity", John D. Zizioulas
"With such a view of the eucharistic community in the background it would have been impossible for the composition and the structure of this community to be different from what it actually was in the first two centuries. A different composition and structure would mean a different ecclesiology. It is, therefore, important for us in order to understand this ecclesiology, especially as it concerns the aspect of "catholicity" to bear in mind this composition and structure.
As a combination of the existing fragmentary liturgical evidence of the first few centuries allows us to know, the "whole Church", "dwelling in a certain city" would "come together" mainly on a Sunday to "break bread". This synaxis would be the only one in that particular place in the sense that it would include the "whole Church". This fact, which is not usually noted by historians, is of paramount ecclesiological significance, for it immediately draws the line of demarcation between the Christian and non Christian pattern of unity at the time of the early Church.
Coming together in brotherly love was certainly not a Christian innovation. In the Roman empire it was so common to form associations that there was need to form special laws concerning such associations signified under under the name of collegia. The brotherly love which prevailed among the members of them of the collegia was so strong and organized that each one of them would contribute monthly to a common fund and would address the others members by the title "brethren" (fratres, sodales. socii). Apart from the pagans, the Jews who lived in the Roman Empire were also organized into special communities with an athnarch and their brotherly love was so strong that in special groups like the Essenes, it was based on principles of common property. To speak, therefore, of the unity of the early Christians in termsof brotherly love would be to miss the unique point of this unity and perhaps even to expose the comparison from which it would certainly not gain much especially in light of such evidence as that provided by texts like Gal. 5:5, 1 Cor. 11:21, etc. !
"With such a view of the eucharistic community in the background it would have been impossible for the composition and the structure of this community to be different from what it actually was in the first two centuries. A different composition and structure would mean a different ecclesiology. It is, therefore, important for us in order to understand this ecclesiology, especially as it concerns the aspect of "catholicity" to bear in mind this composition and structure.
As a combination of the existing fragmentary liturgical evidence of the first few centuries allows us to know, the "whole Church", "dwelling in a certain city" would "come together" mainly on a Sunday to "break bread". This synaxis would be the only one in that particular place in the sense that it would include the "whole Church". This fact, which is not usually noted by historians, is of paramount ecclesiological significance, for it immediately draws the line of demarcation between the Christian and non Christian pattern of unity at the time of the early Church.
Coming together in brotherly love was certainly not a Christian innovation. In the Roman empire it was so common to form associations that there was need to form special laws concerning such associations signified under under the name of collegia. The brotherly love which prevailed among the members of them of the collegia was so strong and organized that each one of them would contribute monthly to a common fund and would address the others members by the title "brethren" (fratres, sodales. socii). Apart from the pagans, the Jews who lived in the Roman Empire were also organized into special communities with an athnarch and their brotherly love was so strong that in special groups like the Essenes, it was based on principles of common property. To speak, therefore, of the unity of the early Christians in termsof brotherly love would be to miss the unique point of this unity and perhaps even to expose the comparison from which it would certainly not gain much especially in light of such evidence as that provided by texts like Gal. 5:5, 1 Cor. 11:21, etc. !
posted by Addai | 3:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home