RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Church Army Church, The Christian
ien falls primarily on the building-fund, though usually the capital is not to be touched, nor even the income entirely exhausted. Appeal is rather to be made to the classes who are bound to contribute by local law or custom; to all who receive income from the church, the holders of the benefice and tithes in particular, in a proportion to be judicially determined; if there are not enough of these, to the parishioners, including non-resident landowners, in case the tax is real and not personal —and only in this last case is the exaction independ- »nt of the taxpayer's personal belief. In patronal Aurches the patron is included among those who share this obligation; but only (by the present interpretation) when he receives a portion of the " fruits " of the benefice. In cathedrals the burden rests first on the building-fund, if there is one; if act, upon the bishop and chapter, then upon the cathedral clergy, and finally upon the diocesan clergy. In some places, as in Prussia, a certain i
percentage of the fees in each church is levied for the support of the cathedral. In the Protestant churches of Germany, the obligation comes primarily upon the building-fund and next upon the congregation, and is frequently a land-tax.
(E. Friedbbrg.)
CHURCH CHEST (Ger. Kirchenkasten, Lat. Area ecclesiw): Properly a receptacle for church funds, but applied also to the funds themselves. Then it signifies the portion of the revenues appropriated for the expenses of divine service and for the maintenance of the church building (see Fabrica EccLESi^). In a narrower sense it is a box (Lat. truncus, Ft. tronc) put in a church to receive offerings of money, which seems to have originated in connection with the Crusades. Innocent III. (1198-1216) ordered that one should be put in every church, and, in spite of opposition and I mocking jibes, the custom persisted.
I. Meaning and Use of the Word. II. The Church in the New Testament. The Intentions of Jesus (§ 1). The Rock Apostle (§ 2). Relations of the Twelve (§3). The Kingdom and the Church (§4). Membership of the Church (§5). Church OIBces Determined by Church Needs (§ 6). til. The Church in Traditional Christianity.
1. In Primitive Catholicism.
CHURCH, THE CHRISTIAN.
Tendency toward Legalism (§ 1). Significance of " Catholic Church " (§ 2).
The Ignatian Episcopate (§ 3). The Cyprianic Episcopate (§ 4). Views of Augustine (§5). Later (or Roman) Catholicism in
East and West. Eastern Church Mystical (§ 1). Western Church Governmental (§ 2). " Papal " and " Episcopal " Systems (§ 3).
IV. Protestant Doctrine of the Church. Wyclif's Teaching (§ 1). Luther's Teaching (§ 2). Questions Left Unsettled by the
Reformers (§ 3). Calvinistic Doctrine of the Church
(§ 4).
Post-Reformation Doctrines of the Church (§ 5).
Pietistic and Rationalistic Doctrines (§ 6).
I. Meaning and Use of the "Word: The word "church" (from Greek kyriakon, "the Lord's," i.e., " house " or " body ") meant in original Christian usage either the universal body of Christian believers or a local congregation of believers. In the Romance languages the idea is expressed by a word from another root (Fr. eglise, Ital. chiesa, from Greek ekklesia " the [body] called together " or " called out "). The Old Testament had two words to express the idea, 'edhah and kahal (Lev. iv. 13, 14), both meaning " assembly," the latter implying a distinctly rehgious object. In modern usage the term is employed to denote also the building in which a body of Christians meets for worship. An extension has taken place in recognized usage in accordance with which men speak of the Buddhist or the Jewish Church, meaning the whole body of believers in Buddhist or Jewish teaching.
II. The Church in the New Testament: It has been disputed whether Jesus intended to found a church, i.e., a particular, organized association of his disciples, differing specifically from the existing national unity of Israel. He proclaimed the nearness of the kingdom of God, and then announced that it was already present. His discourses dealt
with this kingdom, with the con- 1. The ditions for membership in it, and with ofT'°^^ the blessings to be enjoyed within it. esus. -pi^g question is whether there is a connection between the foundation of such an organized body of believers as has been mentioned and the heavenly kingdom which is to be set up in the worid by divine power. The state-
ments and parables in the Gospels do not, with the exception of Matt. xvi. 18, 19, bear on this question. In the parables, for example, of the sower, of the wheat and the tares, of the net, there is no word of any binding connection among those who enter the kingdom. In that of the leaven there is indeed the idea of the spread of the kingdom as a body with an objective unity; but we are not told how or to what extent an organic form is destined for it, nor how far it is to be distinguished from the organic association of Israel.
But in truth the disciples were actually, by the very fact of their adherence to Jesus, connected with each other. They formed the flock of the Good Shepherd (Luke xii. 32; John x. 1-15). They were associated by the fact that they and they alone were the children of the kingdom which had already made its appearance in the world. The opposition and hatred which they, as well as their Master, were to find on the part of the Jewish people and the world plainly made it necessary that they should exhibit an external unity, and herein dissociate themselves from their former fellows in nationality and religion.
There is thus nothing surprising in the fact that Jesus speaks in two places of a community of his own which he is to found; it is surprising only that there are no more definite or detailed statements on the subject. It is significant that the first time that he spoke of this was when he had just received the first clear, divinely inspired confession of faith in him, and when he was beginning to prepare his disciples for his death. In that place (Matt. xvi.
Church, The Christian