[Image] [Hi-Res Image]
Page 63
83 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Eoolesiastioa Eooleeiology are found other local church bodies that do sustain a common relation. Such bodies are associated by yielding to a varying extent obedience to the juris diction of more general bodies or aeries of bodies. There are found to be two divisions of this second class. First, among some local church bodies of this second class the general authority or aeries of authorities have as a dominant characteristic of their jurisdiction the right to act in a judicial capac ity in cases to which the subordinate local bodies or individual members of such bodies are parties. Second, among others of this second class the general authorities or series of authorities have as a domi nant characteristic of their jurisdiction the right to administer a body of law which has been accepted by the local organizations. There are, therefore, three general forms or types of ecclesiastical associa tion in modern society, and these are known as polities. There are (1) the congregational polity, with local church bodies showing every degree of actual autonomy (see CONGREGATIONALISTS, IV.); (2) the synodical or presbyterial polity, in which church administration is lodged in a graded series of courts with both original and appellate jurisdic tion (see PRESBYTERIANS); and (3) the episcopal polity, in which the function of administration is vested in an individual (see BISHOP; EPISCOPACY). While there are many variations of these general forms of ecclesiastical organization, there does not occur among civilized people any variation sufii ciently radical to constitute a fourth type. Such an analysis is the only safe means of securing a scientific classification of existing denominations according to their type of polity. This classification rests upon the actual facts of organization and not upon titles, which are often misleading. The large number of religious denominationsof Western civilization alone present almost every conceivable variety of ecclesi astical organization. Yet they are susceptible of scientific classification on the basis here outlined, and may, of course, be further subdivided and clas sified according to their peculiarities. A fourth division of the subject-matter of ecclesi ology deals with the functions which ecclesiastical bodies perform. As in the case of g. Ecclesi- political institutions, the primary fune astical tion is that of legislation, the making Functions. of the internal law of the organization. Such law is either, organic, fundamen tal, or constitutional, or it is in the nature of statutes or by-laws and therefore more easily amended. The rule prevails throughout the countries of Western civilization that ecclesiastical bodies may not enact law containing provisions contrary to the law of the land, and that the fundamental principles of the civil law to the extent that they define and protect civil and property rights will by the civil courts be read into any body of church law. The second ecclesiastical function is that of administra tion. The problems that arise in the course of ecclesiastical administration call for the exercise of the third function, that of adjudication or the judi cial application of law to specific cases. The normal supplement of the function of adjudication is that of discipline (see CHURCH D1aCIPLINE), by which the penalty for the violation of ecclesiastical law is
enforced. The exercise of this function of discipline seems to be weakening in many ecclesiastical bodies, but, on the other hand, it should be remembered that the sphere of ecclesiastical discipline has in modern civilization been greatly restricted by civil law. The two remaining functions of ecclesiastical organizations are those of propaganda and mission. Propaganda is the conscious and systematic spread of faith and principles, while the mission, which naturally supplements propaganda, is the function of reproducing the ecclesiastical organization from which emanated the particular propaganda. Ecclesiologiata are inclined to look upon the rigor with which these functions are performed as being to a certain extent a measure of the vitality of the body. Different organizations vary greatly as to the relative values of these functions and as to the energy with which they are to be exercised. In the simplest and moat completely autonomous bodies there is a concentration of these functions in a single organ, while among bodies having more complex polities there is a distribution of powers and frequently a highly developed machinery.
Up to this point has been outlined what may be called static ecclesiology. There is, however, a field which may be defined as that of dy6. Forces of namic eccleaiology. Here the subjectIntegration. matter comprises the social and economic environments of ecclesiastical bodies and the moral forces at work tending to change the spirit and the structure of such bodies. Ecclesiastical institutions are, from the standpoint of the social sciences, aggregations of living social organism and subject to a certain extent to the laws of social development. They are seen to have forces of. original impetus, to have their periods of development, and frequently their periods of decay and dissolution. A natural division of such social and moral forces is into those working for the integration of ecclesiastical bodies, and those working for their disintegration. The same force under differing conditions works in opposite directions. The dominant forces working for the integration of ecclesiastical bodies are the influences of education and of material wealth, energy in propaganda and mission, and, perhaps more potent than these, certain ecclesiastical concepts or ideals such as those of the historical continuity of the Church and those of ecclesiastical adaptation. The dominant forces working for the disintegration of ecclesiastical bodies are the lack of education, the lack of missionary energy, the lack of material wealth, such ecclesiastical concepts or ideals as those of isolation and alienation, and the tendency to heresy and its normal result, schism. While the tendency to schism is the moat obvious of all disintegrating forces, it is probably not as fundamental as certain concepts which require explanation in order to a due appreciation of their influence. Among the forces operating for continuous ecclesiastical integration are the concepts of adaptation and of the historical continuity of the Church. The ideal of ecclesiastical adaptation results from the desire on the part of members of religious bodies to have their organization keep in complete touch with all the normal features of its social environment. Under the in-