Jeff continues the dialogue on salvation and the Church. He writes:
Is the true Church the Orthodox, or is it the Roman? Perhaps the Anglican Church? This question has burned my brain and soul as I searched for the answer over the past years. If salvation belongs to the Church, I want to be a part of the True Church and not one that has fallen away.
Again I would like to draw on Hooker. He says that any person who professes Christ as Sovereign Lord is a part of the Church. I must agree. This is where it gets tricky. He also says heretics who have fallen away from true teaching are still proclaiming Christ, just a little mixed up. With his sacramental theology he says that those who have fallen away from the sacramental aspects of the True Church are still a part, just incorrect and in need of enlightenment. Hooker feels that the sacraments are necessary for salvation and that there is a true religion that should govern every persons heart.
Richard Hooker would applaud Father A.K.M. Adam for his continual turn of the phrase �Its more complicated than that.� For it really is a mess. You don�t have to look to hard into any tradition to find fault and falling away from the Gospel. But on the other hand you can also see great efforts to stay true to the Gospel and the Traditions and the teachings of Christ; some much more than others in my opinion.
So where does that leave me? Struggling in the Anglican Church. Just as I struggled in the Roman Church, just as I would struggle in any tradition. I can say that some traditions are more correct in their worship and mission, but I can�t exclude any or give any the sole ownership of Salvation, �Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people�
Now, earlier in his blog, Jeff describes profession in Christ in terms of baptism and notes that baptism incorporates us into the Church. All well and good.
The question I have for Jeff, however, is: Is one's incorporation into the Body of Christ primarily confessional or is it primarily sacramental? Is it both? But if it is both, then the follow up question is: What is the Church? Is it a confessional body? Is it a sacramental body? Is it both? Or are sacrament and confession not constitutive of the Church but constituted by the Church? That is to say, does the Church guard the sacrament and confession, or do sacrament and confession guard the Church? If it is the former, then can one ultimately shrug and say, "It's more complicated than this?" or is this a matter about which we can have certain, if not exhaustive, knowledge? If sacrament and confession constitute the Church, then a) what does this do to the Church as Christ's Body, and b) what is to prevent one from starting one's own church, as is often the case among us Protestants?
To clarify my line of questioning a bit more: Does Jeff's line of argument make of the Church a juridical entity, just more fuzzy around the edges than some exclusivists want to say? If so--and I do not assume an affirmative answer to the question--how are we to understand the New Testament assertion that the Church is the Body of Christ, which entails an incarnate historical continuity?
Posted by Clifton at January 2, 2003 01:12 PM | TrackBack