Ecclesiology is not the history of the church; it is the history of how people understood the church. It's interesting to note that the second largest denomination, after practicing Catholics, is Catholics who are no longer practicing their faith. This is not just a problem within the church; it is also a cultural problem. Today, there are two world views; one is traditional in which community is more important than the individual, and one is modern in which an individual is more important the community. Another way to look at it is to say that in traditional culture people derive their identity by participating in the center, in community.
Before Western society began in about 800 AD, society was a community with orthodox beliefs. People within the community looked toward the center to define themselves, and at the center they found the Church. After Western society began, community ceased to dominate society and people began to look outside the circle for answers. In affect a door was opened that allowed individuals to explore outside their immediate community, and outside the influence of the Church. Once this door was opened in traditional culture people also began to define themselves outside of the circle, orthodoxy died and people began to focus on themselves. This modern view says that an individual has the right to do what they want.
Neo Orthodox is people who are trying to be orthodox, but have "been outside" and are now trying to close the door. These religious fundamentalists want security. For example, what the Christian church went through in a few hundred years, the Islamist church is now going through in about 50 years. Being Catholic is to understand that "Grace perfects nature". Catholics want to understand and participate in the world outside the circle, and it's important for the Church to have a greater intellectual foundation, by reaching out to understand what people are thinking. (Incidentally, my instructor pointed out that for him New Age might be pronounced newage, which rhymes with sewage.)
Choice defines Post Modernism, and the choice of values is what is killing us as a culture. People cannot live without some form of mythical meaning in their lives. Any theology of the church is historical, and it exists to make sense of the meaning of God. Society values diversity and the Church should value diversity, because theology begins with the experiences of diversity and social justice. We as a church must continue to bridge the gap between tradition and experience. One institutional mistake after Vatican II has been a retrenching of the closed circle. The Diocese of San Jose is a very special place actually. This diocese is blessed with an appreciation of diversity, and has an overabundance of gifted laity who are empowered by the very gift of Baptism.
The method for doing theology is basically correlation of scripture, encyclicals, and teaching. Creeds gives us a "that" (belief) and theology gives us a "how" (theory). Theology changes as forms of faith change. Theologians who were creating an ultimate theology for all time didn't understand their own position in history. Every human being has questions that are philosophical, even if they are not about the meaning of life. Ultimately what matters is our relationship with Christ; this is the eternal truth, we teach church, we embody church, we are church. Even if all questions cannot (and must not) be answered we need to ask questions about life, and these questions must be answered in the same form as the question. Some of the questions the Church must answer are 1) What is going on in our culture, 2) What are the needs of the church, 3) What are the needs of the people, and 4) What is the service of church? Good Theology answers questions because it takes the "that" and applies it to life.
Jesus did not understand the word church although it's found in Matthew two times, so where did the idea of Church come from? Thessalonians was the first book of the New Testament, written in about 50 AD, or about 20 years after Jesus' death. Paul was trying to name or describe the followers of Jesus, who were called "The Way" or The "Nazarenes". Paul knew Hebrew scripture, and Gahal Jahwel, "The People of God", was translated into Greek (for the Septuagint) as Ekklesia, "Those who call out to God", which was later translated into English as church. Originally it was applied to each individual community, and much later it was applied to the universal church. Today even though the church as institution is incredibly complicated and varied it still consists of "those who are called out" and it is still "the body of Christ".
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