What is Ecclesiology?

To those who do not know or who has ever heard the term before, Ecclesiology is the theological study of Christian Churches. The word, Ecclesiology was first coined back in the late 1830's. It was then defined as the study of the science of the building and the decoration of the churches. Ecclesiology refers to the origin of the church and how it relates to Jesus Christ. What role the church has in salvation, destiny and leadership. Some of the issues and questions that are answered when studying Ecclesiology are the following:

Who is the Church: is the church in question a visible or earthly corporation or is it a unified visible society, Does the church represent what all Christian believe despite their denomination or does it pertain to the Christian who believe and the Christians that have passed on.

What Does the Church Do: Ecclesiology studies what the sacraments of the church are what divine ordinances of the church and what context of the Church does the church preach the gospel.

These are just 2 of heavy questions that people who study Ecclesiology answer. These are deep rooted questions and you have to be deep in religion of today as well as the past to answer these questions. Ecclesiology is a very interested concept to those who are vested in religion. For those willing to learn and study hard, this can be a very compelling way to understanding religion.

There are typically three areas of Ecclesiology, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. Under the Roman Catholic Ecclesiology, the models and views of the Roman Catholics are studied. One of the studies has found that the Catholic Church is just one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church and it is the only Church of the divine and apostolic origin.

In the Eastern Orthodox Ecclesiology, the Church is One and though She is manifested in more than one place, the Orthodox Ecclesiology works with more than one in unity and on unity in plurality. There is no in between for the Orthodox. The Protestant Ecclesiology has Magisterial Reformation Ecclesiology and Radical Reformation Ecclesiology.

The Magisterial Reformation Ecclesiology states that when Martin Luther said that the Catholic Church lost sight of what the doctrine of grace was, and it lost any claim to be called an authentic church, the argument brought out counter arguments from Catholics that Martin Luther was guilty of Donatism and they did challenge the central teachings of the early churches but mainly the Church Father St Augustine of Hippo.

The Radical Reformation Ecclesiology states that there is not just one but many views that are expressed from members. This form of Ecclesiology is in dispute of the hierarchical and sacramental ecclesiology that imposed Roman Catholic traditions with new Luther traditions.

There are so many different aspects to religion and to Ecclesiology. You really have to have knowledge of religion to follow along with the studies and the teachings of different Catholic religions. Once you understand the basics then you will start to see how interesting Ecclesiology actually is.