Word: church
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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...apostle Paul laid down the first principles of Christian belief and organization. He believed each Christian to be the dwelling place of Christ's spirit, and, according to his somewhat mystical conception, the church is the body of Christ, because it is the unity into which are bound all Christian individuals. At no time, however, did he teach the especial sancity of the church as compared with the individual, nor believe that Christ revealed himself more truly through its collective organism than through men as units...
Even in the very earliest years of the church, there grew up inevitably certain distinctions between its members. Some were called to the highest positions--to apostleship, to prophecy, to teaching--and to others were given the smaller offices in the organism. But all the authority which came to pertain to church officers was but the authority of missionaries and evangelists over their people, and in no sense the diocesan authority of regularly appointed bishops. Authority was given for and was conditional upon superior spirituality alone, and nowhere is there evidence of a clerical hierarchy understood as established...
...years went on, there arose the need of more compact church organism; for the early spiritual ardor was growing less, and strong authority was necessary to bind together the Christian church. The superintendence of the church's alms, the regulation of the confused church service, the need for some authoritative tribunal to exercise spiritual jurisdiction--all called imperatively for a more firmly established system. In response to these needs of the time, the clerical order did become more firmly established, and in the writings of Clement of Rome, within a generation after the death of Paul, is first prescribed...
...whole doctrine of clerical supremacy, with all it entailed, was an outgrowth of the second and third centuries. The original church did not contain it, and was devoid of all claims of apostolic succession from Christ, of any rigid form of worship or organization, of clerical supremacy and of sacerdotalism...
...Paul's Society. Rev. C. H. Brent, Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Boston. Brooks House...