{"id":213,"date":"2015-03-20T13:58:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T13:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nevisonhardy.co.uk\/chaplaincy\/?page_id=213"},"modified":"2015-12-15T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T15:17:02","slug":"kingdom-church-and-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chaplaincyresource.canterbury.ac.uk\/?page_id=213","title":{"rendered":"Kingdom, Church and world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once the church had gained the official recognition of the state (as happened first under Emperor Theodosius (347-395CE)), the simple formula \u2018Outside the Church, no salvation\u2019 took on a new and harsher meaning. As Christendom took hold the church occupied a supremely powerful position. Within a view of salvation as a successful migration from one essentially static and contemporaneous realm to another, that is from earth to heaven, the Church could conceive of itself as the one storehouse and mediator of grace required to make the transition. It was the sole broker of salvation. It was the Reformation, of course, that first called this view powerfully into question. Martin Luther and others recognised that this understanding was in danger of putting the church in the place of God, more precisely in place\u00a0of the mediating work of Christ. But this prior conception of the church has also been shown to be suspect from another perspective. That is through the reawakening of interest in eschatology begun around the turn of the twentieth century with Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer, and brought to fruition in the theology of Wolhart Pannenberg and J\u00fcrgen Moltmann.<\/p>\n

In eschatological perspective the church is seen to be but an epiphenomenon caused by the interrelationship between the \u2018advancing\u2019 Kingdom of God <\/a>and the world. The Church is that part of the world that explicitly<\/em> anticipates the coming Kingdom, accepting the lordship of Christ and so being called into active witness on Christ\u2019s behalf. But the activity and anticipated presence of the Kingdom is not limited to the church, for the Holy Spirit is active in all creation. Moreover, when the Kingdom finally comes in all its fullness – when the new creation arrives \u2013 the church becomes redundant because anticipation gives way to realised presence. In the vision of the new creation offered in Revelation 21 there is no longer any need of the temple (v.22); God\u2019s presence permeates all as light (21:23, 22:5). The church then is a transient phenomenon; it does not exist for its own sake, but for the sake of what will come to take its place.<\/p>\n

Appreciating the relationship between church, world and kingdom in this way can help place the university chapel and its work in perspective. It both gives enormous value to the proleptic significance of worship, yet provides the impetus to look for God\u2019s presence and action beyond its walls. It thus lends legitimacy and encouragement to the business of looking for \u2018signs of the Kingdom\u2019 wherever they may be found.<\/p>\n

Given the process of the de-centring the church described above, there may be some merit in giving greater attention to the notion of \u2018the communion of saints\u2019. For this is:<\/p>\n