As the People of God, the Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s very body (1 Cor. 12:27). Our Lord superintends our prayers, teaching, and leadership. He is present when we gather (Matt. 18:20). Cleaving to Christ in obedience to his word, we dwell together in his truth, which frees us from our slavery to sin and death (John 8:31–32). The Church manifests the holiness of God to the world (1 Peter 1:15–16). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit ensures that the saving message of Christ crucified is heard in every language and a holy people is gathered from every nation (Acts 2:6–11). The mission of the Church reaches to the ends of the earth, testifying to the universal lordship of Christ (Matt. 28:19). Jesus is the prince of peace, and his call to discipleship tears down the dividing walls of hostility (Eph. 2:14). The Church is united under the one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:5–6).
And yet, our fellowship in Christ is marred by faithlessness and disobedience, parochial narrowness and perennial hostility. As St. Augustine teaches, we are cast into a world governed by two cities. The city of man is ordered toward love of self, even to the point of hatred of God. The earthly city is thus riven by enmity, division, infidelity, and sin. The other city, the city of God, seeks love of God, even to the point of hatred of self. The heavenly city is united in fidelity to Christ, an adherence of heart, mind, and soul that purifies its members of self-love. In the time since Christ’s ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the two cities are intermixed and intertwined, a condition that affects every Christian community. Some participate in the affairs of men with a spirit of devotion to God. Others participate in the worship of God with the aim of serving worldly powers.
The followers of Christ are called to test the spirits. How have we failed to cleave to Christ, preaching falsely, neglecting divinely mandated ordinances and sacraments, and disobeying his commandments? Where has the evangelical imperative waned and the spirit of proclamation flagged? How has the call to holiness been neglected? When has our unity in Christ been damaged and diminished?
In the Western Church, the Reformation gave special urgency to questions of the church’s unity, faithfulness, and obedience. In 1521, Leo X issued a papal bull excommunicating Martin Luther, which set in motion the events that led to the establishment of rival ecclesial bodies in Christendom. The Church of Rome and the churches of the Reformation embraced with equal fervor the creedal stipulation that the true church of Christ is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. They hotly debated the question of who possessed the notes of the church affirmed in the Nicene Creed.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we do not propose to resolve the questions that have divided Protestants and Catholics for centuries. Rather, we seek to express a shared understanding of the creedal marks of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Our aim is to clarify the true nature of the Church for all Christians.
The city of man establishes beachheads in the city of God, especially in our age, seeking to invade and control the body of Christ. Contemporary secular culture attacks and damages our corporate witness to Jesus as Lord, often by weakening our faith, subverting our teaching, and corrupting our worship. The perversions and corruptions of the city of God by the city of man are legion: division, indifference, parochialism, hypocrisy, and other betrayals of the gospel. The creedal affirmation of the Church’s true nature as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic helps us discern where and when the Church needs reformation and repair. This endeavor is a gift as well as a task, for we must answer the call to deepen and restore our faith if we are to have any hope of true reform. In Christ alone do we find the way to renewal.
One. The modern ecumenical movement took inspiration from Jesus’s prayer to his Father: “I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world might know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23). The Father’s love for the Son is unbreakable; Jesus goes to the cross in perfect unity with the One who sent him. So, also, is the Son’s love for his disciples indomitable. Those who believe in him abide in him, and thus they are united in his love.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we acknowledge that the disunity of Christians impairs our witness. Our unity in Christ is something the world must see in order that they might know the power of his love. After the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants insisted that their churches were one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. They divided over who possessed those marks, and what they denote.
This division over theological interpretation of the marks of the Church is especially evident in debates about how the Church is one and undivided. Catholicism grounds the unity of the Church in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The unity of bishops as a collegial body bears witness to the reality of Christ’s singular lordship, and this communion in doctrine and discipline requires the Petrine office of supreme pastor. Union with the bishop of Rome ensures that the Church is one in her teaching, worship, and governance. In this view, without visible communion with the pope, a Christian fellowship is not fully part of the one true Church. According to Evangelicals, the Church is one in those regenerated in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, united in the profession of true doctrine, the practice of sound biblical preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and faithful Christian living. In this view, the Catholic understanding of unity is unbiblical, making the Roman communion an unreliable witness to the gospel.
Theologians have spilled a great deal of ink trying to formulate a shared understanding of unity among Catholics and Protestants. Precisely because Catholics agree with Evangelicals that the Church must be one in faith and practice, these discussions necessarily implicate disputed theological topics that go back to the Reformation. To agree on what makes the Church “one” requires resolving those disputes, which we are far from achieving. Nevertheless, as Evangelicals and Catholics, we can reject certain notions of unity, and together we can identify threats to, and opportunities for, greater unity.
Diversity does not necessarily entail division, and unity does not require uniformity. Paul teaches that there is one God, one Lord, one Spirit, but many gifts, manners of service, and manifestations of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4–7). The history of Christianity testifies to the variety of legitimate theological formulations, effective spiritual practices, and valid patterns of worship. Even as we disagree about the criteria for discerning the boundaries of legitimate diversity, we agree that the unity of the Church rests in Christ’s union with the Father in the Spirit (John 17:21–24). We confess that the Church is always already one in Christ. We are called to seek this unity amidst fracture, to heal the wounds of division. But we do not imagine that our efforts alone make the Church one. Unity is not a bureaucratic achievement, nor does it emerge from theological genius. We find or discover our unity in Christ, which is the work of the Spirit. As Evangelicals and Catholics, we seek to discern and express this unity, which is and always will be imperfect until the time of Christ’s return in glory.
Theological precision falsely deemed obligatory is often a threat to unity. As Evangelicals and Catholics, we know that our theological differences are real and at times acute. But we are also aware that our own traditions can be riven by angry disputes over doctrine. Theologians are sometimes tempted to think that their unique formulations of biblical revelation rise to the status of authoritative and binding truth. Theological insight is to be honored, but it must be married to humility and obedience.
A seductive love of novelty also threatens unity. At times, church leaders can become addicted to experimentation, adopting new liturgies, songs, and prayers simply for the sake of change. As Evangelicals and Catholics, we seek to honor our inheritances, which differ in important respects. Nevertheless, we share the desire to be at one with the great cloud of witnesses who came before us in the faith, looking as did they to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). Their reflection, prayer, and practice properly shape and guide our own. Expressions of doctrine and forms of worship develop over time, to be sure, and we are called to reform the Church and correct errors when necessary. But we counsel careful discernment that prizes continuity. Without this discernment, development and renewal can too easily become deformation, and unnecessary divisions can arise.
Social media accelerate the pace of accusation in theological disputes and tempt us to escalate conflicts. We caution against quick recourse to denunciation and hasty charges of heresy. We should not allow ourselves to be drawn into falsely theologized battles over political loyalties or personalities. Today’s fevered and polarized environment offers an opportunity to bear witness to the charity and unity made possible in Christ.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we have differing views of the sacramental life of the Church. Nevertheless, we agree that all Christians are united in one faith through one baptism (Eph. 4:5), however imperfectly that unity may be realized and expressed in our common life. In very different ways, we affirm that fellowship in one bread is an important sign of visible unity in the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16–17). Holiness is the perfect praise of God, and thus the body of Christ is united when, empowered by the Holy Spirit, believers offer the same perfect adoration and worship. We are called to abide in Christ and fully realize the unity of the people of God, to be one in and through him.
Holy. In an earlier statement of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (“The Call to Holiness,” 2005), we affirmed “God’s summons to Israel, and later to the Church, to be a holy nation, a people set apart as God’s own treasured possession, called to worship, witness, and good works (see Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 2:9).” In Christ, we are grafted onto the people of God, joining a royal priesthood that shuns defilement and seeks to live in accord with God’s commandments. The Church is set apart, sanctified as the body of Christ. God’s summons has the power of righteousness. As Christ is our holiness (1 Cor 1:30), the Church is holy even now, however hidden her sanctity might be under the sinfulness and worldliness of the faithful. As Jesus promises, “You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
The topic of sanctity and sanctification exposes tensions between Evangelicals and Catholics. Protestantism often encourages vigilance against the temptations of works-righteousness and rejects the veneration of saints and relics, as well as a number of theological claims about the Virgin Mary. (See “Do Whatever He Tells You: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Christian Faith and Life,” 2009.) The Reformed tradition is suspicious that sanctuaries and altars adorned with sacred objects will encourage idolatry and empty ritualism. For their part, Catholics are scandalized by casual worship and Sunday services without the Eucharist. More broadly, the Catholic tradition suspects that many Protestants lack confidence in the power of the sacraments and the transformative power of God’s grace, so evident in the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In spite of our differences, together we recognize that the Son of God governs the Church, and that the Church is therefore a divine instrument that is sacred and must be worthy of its calling. The body of Christ is not merely a metaphor. Our Lord abides in the faithful, who abide in him. The holiness of the Church is both a gift and a task.
The holiness of the Church must be manifest in her worship, discipline, and witness. Pentecostalism gives priority to holiness. It emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit to effect profound transformations. For all intents and purposes, the holiness traditions in Protestantism regard visible signs of the inbreaking of God’s Spirit during worship as essential signs of the true Church of Christ. Anabaptist traditions employ believers’ baptism and church discipline to fence off their communities from worldly pollution. Magisterial Protestant Evangelicals emphasize the sacraments and regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Catholics venerate the saints and conceive of the Eucharist as a holy sacrifice. Monks, nuns, and religious orders of various kinds sustain the ascetical ideals of ancient Christianity, which seek to prepare our souls for union with God.
Amid this diversity of practice, we are united in our affirmation that our churches are often seduced by the principalities and powers that rule the world. Church leaders can be prideful, seeking praise and adulation rather than serving the people of God. Greed often holds sway, and we are painfully aware of the sexual sins of priests, preachers, and pastors. Congregations can be captive to gossip and rumor, quick to slander and denounce. Many Christians are imperiled by hypocrisy, eager to be known as righteous while satisfying their passions and laying up their treasure on earth rather than in heaven.
We are united in our concern that our churches are often lazy, lukewarm, and apathetic, failing to impose discipline and cultivate the practices that set the followers of Christ apart from the world. Indifference to beauty in worship veils the holiness of the Church. Recourse to business consultants and corporate “best practices” can easily supplant gospel-informed church governance. Unrepentant sinners resent correction, and church leaders accommodate false doctrine, fearing that members might leave if proper discipline were imposed. These temptations must be resisted. The One who is the Alpha and the Omega warns against a complacency that is neither hot nor cold. He spews out of his mouth the complacent and self-satisfied (Rev. 3:14–17). God does not command us to blend in. We must harken to the words of St. Paul: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).
Though we may assess the failures of the Church differently, as Evangelicals and Catholics we agree that a Church of sinners does not efface the holiness of the body of Christ. God’s grace is greater than our sin (Rom. 5:20–21). In baptism, God marks us as his own. God has chosen a people for himself, “that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4). The sins of Christians are all too real. “None is righteous, no, not one,” St. Paul reminds us (Rom. 3:10). But Christ is the Church’s one foundation (1 Cor. 3:11). As the baptized cleave to him in faith, the Church participates in his divinity (2 Peter 1:4). God’s holiness, given to us in Christ through the Holy Spirit, ensures the holiness of the Church.
Our traditions endorse different patterns of holiness. Catholicism has a process for the official recognition of saints, who are venerated in accord with a set calendar. Protestantism has an informal tradition of holy men and women and speaks of church members as “the saints.” Yet as Evangelicals and Catholics we agree that God calls every baptized person to holiness. Our vocation is to be “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] shine as lights to the world” (Phil. 2:15).
We agree, moreover, that we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to obey God’s commandments. On the cross, Christ reveals the holiness of God. “Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children,” St. Paul urges us, “and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1–2). Jesus’s great commandment calls us to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34). Self-sacrificial works of love adorn the body of Christ. They give the Church an alluring fragrance and light a path that invites others to walk by the Spirit.
Catholic. The incarnate Son possesses the fullness of the Father’s authority in heaven and on earth. His love knows no boundaries; his offer of salvation has no limits. “We have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people” (1 Timothy 4:10). In Christ, God reveals the mystery of his will, which is “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:9–10). The body of Christ is universal. The Church’s mission is comprehensive—according to (kata) the whole (holos). The Church is catholic.
The catholicity of the Church comprehends both Jew and Gentile. Paul explains in his Letter to the Ephesians that in Christ the Gentiles are drawn near to the covenant promise made to the people of Israel. Jew and Gentile have been made one body in the cross (Eph. 2:11–22). In his letter to the Galatians, Paul instructs us that the Church transcends social hierarchies and comprehends both male and female. At Pentecost, in the power of the Spirit, the proclamation of God’s Kingdom encompasses every language and nation. No culture, historical period, or domain of human endeavor falls outside the gospel’s reach. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given” to Christ. He commands his follower to “go therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:18–19).
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we recognize that our traditions have divergent accounts of the catholicity of the Church. Catholics emphasize the sacramental, doctrinal, and juridical universality of the Church. The same rites are celebrated throughout the world; the bishop of Rome, the pope, in collaboration with local bishops, oversees the Church in every land, teaching the same faith in accord with a common understanding. Evangelicals focus on the consistent and universal confession of faith, mutual recognition of the charisms of service and leadership, as well as shared patterns of spiritual renewal and rebirth in Christ. The common confession, mutual recognition, and shared patterns are embodied in church networks, revival movements, and often informal but influential para-church organizations that coordinate mission and witness worldwide.
Even as we acknowledge our differences, as Protestants we recognize in Catholicism the note of catholicity to some degree, and as Catholics we recognize in Protestantism that same note, at least in part. The Church of Rome regularly gathers bishops and other representatives from around the world to consult and form common teachings and policies. Catholic social doctrine seeks to bring all aspects of society into accord with God’s will. Evangelicals affirm a catholicity of the Holy Spirit. Connections among churches in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and South America are warm and immediate. Evangelical ministries in many different domains seek to convey “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
We are united in the conviction that we are always called by Christ to deepen and extend the catholicity of the Church. Our task is to preach the lordship of Christ and seek to attain “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). He governs, not only in our hearts, but also through our worship, ministry, and service to the world. Christian discipleship makes visible the Lord’s universal authority.
Together, we recognize that group prejudice, national pride, and cultural insularity can impede the Church’s catholicity. Worldly powers are eager to conscript the Church into their projects, and church leaders often oblige. We acknowledge that the catholicity of our Church is damaged by division and undermined by lassitude and spiritual impoverishment.
Today, some campaign for a universal city of man, effected through the bureaucratic unification of the human race. The catholicity of the Church resists this temptation. God’s purpose in Christ is to establish spiritual dominion. The note of catholicity means more than the baptism of people worldwide; we are called to convert every culture so that all peoples recognize the lordship of Christ in all things. Until his return in glory, Christ reigns in our hearts, knitting us together in compassion, humility, patience, and forgiveness, “and above all love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14). As the peace of Christ rules in our hearts, the Church offers witness to his triumphant return in glory, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess his name (Phil 2:10-11).
Mission, service, leadership, and proclamation further the catholicity of the Church. In this work, we agree that it is God in Christ who accomplishes catholicity, which is present in every community gathered in his name. Theological genius, spiritual heroism, and the authority of church leaders must serve the Lord’s designs. Christ sends us to the four corners of the earth. We are his emissaries, able to accomplish his designs only by the power given to us in the Spirit.
Apostolic. Biblical baptism commissions us to announce the Kingdom of God and serve the mission of the incarnate Son. We participate in the apostolic work of the Son (Heb 3:1), whom the Father has sent into the world (John 20:21). God has entrusted to us the message of salvation, making us ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:19–20). We are trustworthy witnesses only insofar as we cleave to the primordial witness of the first apostles, who were catechized by the Old Testament’s prophetic revelation and tutored by Christ. The Church is apostolic because it confesses the faith of the apostles and sustains the common life established by Christ.
Evangelicals and Catholics affirm the authority of scripture, but we have distinct understandings of the ways in which God calls us to guard, protect, and proclaim his Word. Evangelicals emphasize scripture, interpreted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The written witness of the apostles tests the gifts of the Spirit and provides assurance that preaching and teaching remain true to the redemptive mission of Christ. There is a succession of true doctrine and faithful leadership through the ages. Catholics define apostolic succession as the continuous chain of bishops ordained to govern, instruct, and lead in worship, especially those who serve in the Chair of St. Peter in Rome. In this view, a succession of authoritative teachers ensures true doctrine and proper interpretation of the Bible.
We do not pretend to resolve one of the great differences between Evangelicals and Catholics, which concerns the question of how we know that our churches are apostolic in word and sacrament. Nevertheless, we are united in the conviction that the Church must always seek to be true to the teachings we have received from the apostles. The Church’s vocation is “to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). We are called to preserve, transmit, and proclaim the Word of God in its fullness.
We oppose competitors to the witness of the apostles. Paul warned that an immature faith can easily be corrupted by “every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their deceitful wiles” (Eph. 4:14). The manipulation of scripture to serve political and institutional interests is among the perennial temptations to suborn the Church to serve the city of man. In our era, a progressive conceit holds sway, one that claims that “modern man” has attained new and superior insights. We are told that the teaching of the apostles must be put before the bar of contemporary moral sentiments. In areas such as sexual ethics, we are told that we now know more—and know better. The modern world corrects and “updates” apostolic teaching. This mentality too easily invades our churches, undermining apostolic preaching and teaching, thus fomenting division. Today, progressive religion poses a grave threat to the apostolicity of our churches—a threat often far graver than the important theological issues at stake in the differences between Evangelicals and Catholics.
Faithfulness to the teachings of the apostles is essential for true interpretation of scripture. The Old and New Testaments bear witness to Christ. Learning the details of the Bible’s composition and then speculating about the historical process by which the canon was formed can enrich (or at times distort) our reading of Scripture. But we should not presume that historical and sociological expertise has greater authority than the apostolic tradition.
Modernity has decomposed and disintegrated traditional forms of life. Society has become fluid and endlessly mobile. For those drowning in a liquid world, our loyalty to the faith once delivered can be a powerful witness to the trustworthiness of God’s promises. Under bondage to sin and death, we only too willingly serve the principalities and powers of this world. The apostolic Church manifests the freedom that comes from obedience to God’s revealed will. In an era suspicious of authority and quick to critique and deconstruct, the Church’s joyful embrace of its duty to preserve and transmit the apostolic inheritance, full and intact, expresses a countercultural gratitude for the faith once delivered, the faith of those who have gone before us.
We acknowledge that our churches can be misgoverned and our communities corrupted by false doctrines. Preachers, bishops, pastors, and other leaders may misrepresent the gospel. Seminary professors may teach falsely. Church members, complacent and lukewarm, may be led astray by contemporary fashion. But we trust in the promise of Christ to be with us until the end of the age. Because he loves his bride, Jesus guards and sustains the Church. Enthroned in heaven, the Risen Lord governs the Church even now.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we recognize that we have inherited distinct and at times incompatible understandings of the Church: her doctrines, her sacraments, her ministry, and her governance. Our differences notwithstanding, we acknowledge the truth of the gospel: Christ is one. He is holy, and he is Lord of all. Christ is the source and guarantor of apostolic teaching. Therefore, every gathering of faithful Christians possesses to some degree the four notes of the church, however imperfectly. The one, holy Lord who governs all in accord with his Father’s will is present among us (Matt. 18:20).
And as Evangelicals and Catholics we recognize that only the Church Triumphant in heaven is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic in the fullness of perfection. Our mission, witness, and worship constitute the Church Militant, which participates in the perfection of the Church Triumphant but does not possess its fullness. We are divided in our assessment of the degree to which we possess the marks of the Church, but we share a profound confidence: Christ has promised to build his Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). He has promised never to leave us or forsake us but to be with us to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). We long for his return in glory. And we are united in the prayer that, even in our divided state, we may help each other become ever more worthy to greet the bridegroom at the end of days. Maranatha!
Signatories
Bruce Riley Ashford
Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology
Hans Boersma
Nashotah House Theological Seminary
Dale M. Coulter
Pentecostal Theological Seminary
Brian Dunkle, S.J.
Boston College
Eduardo Echeverria
Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Joel C. Elowsky
Concordia Seminary (St. Louis)
Angela Franks
St. John’s Seminary
Timothy George
Beeson Divinity School
Thomas G. Guarino
Seton Hall University
James F. Keating
Providence College
Peter J. Leithart
Theopolis Institute
Matthew Levering
Mundelein Seminary
Gerald McDermott
Reformed Episcopal Seminary
and Jerusalem Seminary
Peter Mommsen
Plough Quarterly
Charles Raith II
Ascension Health and John Brown University
R. R. Reno
First Things
Christopher Ruddy
The Catholic University of America
Laura A. Smit
Calvin University
Kevin J. Vanhoozer
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
George Weigel
Ethics and Public Policy Center
