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| David Bosch accessed at beeld.com |
This post offers a brief overview of the section in Bosch’s book
entitled ‘Ministry by the Whole People of God’. This is effectively the theological and historical
undergirding to much of what I have already said.
Scholars are agreed that the movement away from ministry as the monopoly
of ordained men to ministry as the responsibility of the whole people of God
(ordained and non-ordained) is one of the,
if not the most dramatic shifts
taking place in the church today.
Indeed, some would say that the institutionalization of church offices
is one of the key characteristics of the Constantinian dispensation whereas the
contemporary laicization of the church is indicative of the end of
Constantinianism. (Boerwinkel)
To understand what has happened, we need to follow the developments that
have led to this point.
As with most things theological, the start and the end of the story is
with Jesus, There is no doubt that
Jesus broke with the entire Jewish tradition when he chose disciples not from
the priestly class, but from among fishermen, tax collectors and prostitutes.
This was part of Jesus’ turning upside down of normal human expectations.
Because the church began as a movement rather than an institution, they
chose a secular term to describe what they were. They were an ecclesia, a
gathering, a community. Pauline churches are not called synagogues … neither
are they called thiasoi, the common
Greek word for cultic or religious gatherings. Most significantly, they met in homes
or what you might even term house churches and these were the basic unit in the
establishment of Christianity in any city. (Meeks)
The church had offices of leadership (episcopos, presbyteros and
diakonos), but these grew up within the community and it would be grossly
inaccurate to put on these terms a ‘later juridical understanding of
ecclesiastical office. Most of the ‘leaders’ in the early church are
charismatic figures, natural leaders, both men and women.
By the 80’s of the first century, Christianity had clearly emerged as a
new religion rather than as a reform movement within Judaism. Indeed, there was
so much pressure placed on it by heretical teaching, that the natural antidote
was to encourage the church to follow the leadership of their bishops who began
to be seen as the sole guarantors of the apostolic tradition. We see this idea
especially in Ignatius of Antioch and Cyprian of Carthage.
Henceforward, the ordained minister would hold a dominant and undisputed
position in church life – and this was further bolstered by the doctrines of
‘apostolic succession’ and the ‘indelible character’ conferred on the
priesthood by ordination.
This clericalising of the church went hand in hand with the
sacerdotalising of the clergy. (A sacrificial priesthood who stood in a unique
place between humans and God, somewhat like the OT priesthood).
However. It took some time for this notion to fully develop. Apart from
a questionable reference in Ignatius, the term ‘priest’ was not applied until
around 200. When the idea was established it became natural to see the church
as a means of communicating grace with the laity being passive receptors.
This understanding prevailed throughout the Medieval paradigm and was
challenged, at least on paper, at the Reformation with Luther’s clarion call
for a priesthood of all believers. However, as my lecture intimated, through
various pressures the Reformation practice was almost as clericalised.
It is Bosch’s view, actually, that only a tumultuous change in culture and
values would have brought this situation to an end. And such seems to be
happening as we find new and powerful emphases on what Catholics would call
‘the apostolate of the laity’ and Protestants call ‘the priesthood of all
believers.’
Bosch sees Protestant missions as a context where this change has been
in process for quite some time. From the beginning Protestant missions were a
lay movement – and even with CSM, clergy members were still essentially
‘clerical nobodies’ who co-operated with prominent lay people. On the mission
fields, women often took a leading role and were quite happily permitted to do
what they would not have been allowed to do at home. And dare I say it, often
with as much or even more ability, passion and commitment than their male
colleagues.
It is after WWII that the ‘home front’ began to catch up as it dawned on
both Protestant and Catholic churches that the traditional monolithic models of
church no longer matched realities. The theological aggiornamento (catching up with the times in both traditions|)
meant that a place was seen for lay ministry.
The Second Vatican Council expressed this mood with words never used in
Vatican I (especially laicus, lay person, used 200 times) The Decree on the Office of Bishops says,
‘The Church is not truly established and does not fully live, nor is it a
perfect sign of Christ unless there is a genuine laity existing and working
alongside the hierarchy’. And most significantly, the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, a document which describes
laity pre-eminently in terms of the church’s mission, having the
‘right and duty to be apostles.’
Bosch adds regretfully, though, that in many ways things have not
changed radically as there is a hierarchical fear in Catholicism of
congregationalism. But things are still moving over all – across the
denominations – and a radical shift is taking place. Lynn encapsulates it on
the Catholic side.
So Bosch argues that lay ministry is essential to the fulfilling of the Missio Dei and that the collapsing of
the Enlightenment paradigm has created a situation where we can tolerate a new
situation. And he sees lay ministry as not only being ecclesiastical but in the
public square – bringing the reality of Christ to situations of need. Moltmann
puts the vision in these terms,
[Future lay ministry] will be directed not only toward divine service in
the church, but also toward divine service in the everyday life of the world.
Its practical implementation will include preaching and worship, pastoral
duties, and Christian community, but also socialization, democratization,
education towards self-reliance and political life.
Base communities in Latin America in many ways fill out one expression
of the type of thing which Bosch and Moltmann are talking about. However, a vital point to end with before we begin our
exercises is to stress that Bosch sees no point in abolishing ordained
ministry. Once it is seen as enablement and the facilitation of gifts, it takes
on a radically needful function. Schillebeeckx puts it like this,
If there is no specialised
concentration of what is important to everyone, in the long run the community
suffers as a result.’
Thus the tendency to regard church offices as functional and therefore,
in the last analysis, as contingent leads us nowhere. Some form of ordained
ministry is indeed essential and constitutive, not as guarantor of the validity of the church’s claim to be the dispenser
of God’s grace, but, at most, as guardian,
to help keep the community faithful to the teaching and practice of apostolic
Christianity.
Reflection.
Do you agree with Bosch’s contention that ordained ministry is of the
essence of the church and not merely contingent?
How do you evaluate the church’s adoption of apostolic succession as a
means of countering heresy?
Which biblical texts speak most to the issue of lay ministry and what do
they tell us?
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