‘We are all equal’ (Omnes sumus aequales): a critical assessment of early Protestant ministerial thinking
The frequently proposed truism that the Believers Church tradition represents a church type of its own is not uncontested at all. Protestants and Baptists alike owe their ecclesial existence int.al. to Luther’s maxim that all Christians are equal in the sight of God (“Omnes sumus aequales” [We are a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2017]
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| In: |
Perspectives in religious studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 44, Issue: 3, Pages: 353-376 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Protestant theology
/ Church office
/ History 1520-1564
/ Baptists
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAG Church history 1500-1648; Reformation; humanism; Renaissance KDD Protestant Church KDG Free church RB Church office; congregation |
| Summary: | The frequently proposed truism that the Believers Church tradition represents a church type of its own is not uncontested at all. Protestants and Baptists alike owe their ecclesial existence int.al. to Luther’s maxim that all Christians are equal in the sight of God (“Omnes sumus aequales” [We are all equal]). Yet, if we study Protestant opinion about ecclesial office and concomitant awareness of equality, we come to the conclusion that conflicting insights, and consequentially the parting of the ways between reformed and radicals, were originally ignited by basic disagreement concerning the dispensability of the congregation in matters of spiritual discernment, and concerning Christocentric visibility of the church, as was clearly displayed in the city of Zurich in the middle of the first half of the 16th century. With reason Believers Church congregations label themselves as a third church type |
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| ISSN: | 0093-531X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Perspectives in religious studies
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