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Ecclesiogenesis: the base communities reinvent the church

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Boff, who was still a Franciscan when he wrote the book, basically challenges the Church to recall and reanimate its apostolic origins. In the "primitive" Church, there were no hierarchical distinctions between ordained and nonordained. In fact, ordination as it came to be known didn't exist. The "laos" were the people of God, and even though individual members took on different functions in keeping with their unique talents (Paul's simile of the body and its parts is appropriate here), everyone was "laity." Worshipping communities were small--what we today would call "household churches"--and everyone was encouraged to take responsibility for the community and its works.
Over the past two millennia, this household model of Church was deemphasized. Top-down institutions replaced the bottom-up community. Ecclesial hierarchies, clear divisions between ordained and nonordained, and excessive authoritarianism became the order of the day, bringing to full fruition the imperial church instigated by the Edict of Milan in the 4th century. Needless to say, this "sacred" institution frequently allied itself with political and economic powers and principalities, at the expense of precisely those marginalized folks Christ favored...

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Availability

171008928

262.02 BOF e

Z. HANDIMAN

Available

Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

262.02 BOF e

Publisher

New York : Orbis Books., 1986

Collation

viii, 115p.; 24cm.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0-88344-214-0

Classification

262.02

Content Type

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Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

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Subject(s)

CATHOLIC CHURCH - DOCTRINES

Specific Detail Info

m/v

Statement of Responsibility

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