Images of the Church

In our modern world, still steeped with Christian language and understanding even as it is moving away from them, the Church might not strike us as strangely as it deserves. I am not referring to a building, or a congregation, or a creedal communion, but instead to ἐκκλησίᾳ, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the union of all believers, the Bride and Body of Christ. St. Paul, explaining the idea, doesn’t attempt to use literal language to describe the vision of the Church, but instead figurative language and imagery. In 1 Corinthians 12, he writes, 

“As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.”

This is a radical and hard-to-grasp claim, unique in its vision of the world and the Christian community within. This understanding of the Church is something that Christian writers even today can struggle to express, often falling back to the metaphors St. Paul pioneered. Early Christians meditating on these questions, however, often sought new and unique imagery to expound on this mystery. In understanding the early Church’s conception of herself, three of these images from the first and second centuries – parts of our earliest extra-biblical Christian writings – seem worthy of highlighting. 

The Didache is one of the oldest Christian writings we know of; scholars debate its origins, but the earliest parts of it seem to predate the Gospel of Matthew, which it is inexorably intertwined with. It is also notable for the earliest known Eucharistic liturgy, laying out prayers during the consecration of the bread and wine. Central to that liturgy is the conceptualization of the bread as an image of the Church. The Didachist implores that, “just as this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and then was gathered together and became one, so may your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom” (Didache 9:4). This completed a symmetric connection with St. Paul’s image; the bread is the Church, the bread is the Body, the Church is the Body. The gathering of this disparate Church reoccurs is the next chapter as the liturgy continues, praying, “To us you have graciously given spiritual food and drink, and eternal life through your servant… from the four winds gather the church that has been sanctified into your kingdom, which you have prepared for it” (Didache 10:3,5). St. Paul uses his body imagery to show eschatological implications: if Christ Resurrected is head of the Church and the firstborn of the dead, then all in the body of the Church are to follow (Colossians 1:18). The Didachist similarly draws parallels: the Church is dispersed throughout the world, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The wheat scattered has been separated from its chaff, collected together, brought to the church, and prepared into the bread which will become Christ’s Body. Similarly, the Church has been scattered across the Earth so that she may proclaim the good news and bring them to God – but this will be unified by the ultimate return of God, who brings His people to Himself. The scattering offers a parallel between the Church’s behavior and God’s, showing the physical state of the church as almost sacramental in nature. 

St. Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch, is one of the earliest identifiable post-biblical Christians whose writings we possess. Arrested around 107 and marched to his martyrdom in Rome, he wrote letters to the churches he passed along his way, including to the church at Ephesus. There, he illustrates the Church as a chorus, in whose “unanimity and harmonious love Jesus Christ is sung.” All must join the chorus, “so that by being harmonious in unanimity and taking your pitch from God you may sing in unison with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, that he may… acknowledge that you are members of his Son” (Ignatius to the Ephesians, 4:1-2). This harmony of the Church is something St. Ignatius addresses again and again, whether in obedience to the bishop, whom the presbyters “are attuned to as strings to a lyre,” or in attacking false teachers which disagree with tradition and corrupt the faith for which Jesus was crucified (Ignatius to the Ephesians, 16). St. Ignatius’ image of the Church shows its unity as a grace it has received from God. No humans can live in a unity as perfect as the Church’s. The connections between her members must be supernatural, emerging from the graces of humility, love and obedience that God bestows through the Gospel. If the Church is the kingdom on Earth, then her members must continually comport themselves in the way of Christ, not only in relation to the world, but also within the Church; when they fracture and disagree, it is the fault of sin, a refusal of grace, and a blemish on the Church.  

Lastly is the Shepherd of Hermas, one of the most widely-read Christian writings throughout the first six centuries of the Church. Written in Rome, it appears in the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest manuscript we have containing all 27 New Testament books, and has had more manuscripts discovered than any early Christian writing aside from Matthew and John. The Shepherd is longer than all of St. Paul’s writings, making it hard to summarize, but the first section – “The Visions” – focuses heavily on the Church and her connections with the world. Hermas, the narrator, has visions provided by an elderly woman, the embodied Church, “created before all things… and for [whose] sake the world was formed.” (Shepherd 8.1-2) The message she provides to Hermas is one of the continual need of repentance as the members of the Church fall into sin. “Your children have rejected God and blasphemed the Lord,” she explains, “they have added licentiousness and orgies of evil to their sins… [but] all the saints who have sinned up to this day will be forgiven, if they repent with all their heart and drive away double-mindedness from their hearts” (Shepherd 6.2-5). She shows Hermas a vision of a tower being built, rising out of the water (for “your life was saved and will be saved through water” (Shepherd 11:4)) and made from blocks carved so seamlessly that the structure “looked as if it was built of a single stone” (Shepherd 10.6). While some stones—the apostles, bishops, deacons, teachers and the martyrs—immediately fit perfectly, others are cast aside because of their sins. “But,” the Church tells Hermas, “they wished to repent… therefore they were not thrown far from the tower, because they will be useful for building if they repent” (Hermas 13:5). Even the stones which seem well-cut can be flawed; some are cast out from the tower after abandoning the Church, others have cracks on account of the evil they hide in their hearts; some are too short on account of their lawless, and others are round from their wealth, professing the Church but unusable until their excess wealth is cut away and their faces are flattened (Hermas 14:3-15:3). The constant building of the tower means there is always a chance for the rocks to be used, even those that had been discarded, so long as they move towards repentance. As Hermas learns more, the woman becomes youthful, reflecting Hermas’ renewed hope; as another guide explains to him, it is like “an old man who has given up all hope… then an inheritance is unexpectedly left to him… he arises and is very joyful and he no longer lies down… You have received a renewal of your spirits by seeing these good things” (Hermas 20:2-21:4). Recognition of the path to repentance offers renewal to the Church even in times of tribulation; it rejuvenates her people and is itself a message that must be proclaimed so that the people can return to God and His Church. Until the final day, the path remains open.

These writings are not regarded as scriptural authority in any denomination; the Shepherd of Hermas certainly has odd Christology that was likely central to its eventual exclusion from the Biblical canon. But each presents an early Christian image of the Church, conceptualizing her unique position in the world and salvation history, and illustrating where the Christian life is leading. The Church is a central mysterium fidei – mystery of the faith – which can sometimes become so essential to our lives as Christians that its wonder is made invisible to us. In looking back to this imagery of our predecessors in the faith, we can better remind ourselves of the mystery which we not only partake in, but form in our ongoing worship.

Bible quotations from the King James Version. 

Didache, Ignatius and Shepard quotes taken from:

Holmes, Michael. The Apostolic Fathers in English. Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.