At many points in its colored history, the church’s unity and its holiness have appeared to come into conflict. On one side, people argue, “The only way we can call ourselves holy, is by staying united. Unity is holiness.” On the other, “The only truly united people are the holy ones. Holiness makes unity.” This dialectical tension is expressed in the church’s creeds–”one, holy, catholic…”–because it exists in her complex identity.
As the fourth century came to a close, the Donatist controversy, a divisive tension and threatening schism, was just opening. See, the obscure, marginal movement of Jesus’ disciples, hovering just above the brink of extinction in the Roman Empire, had become its dominant religion. How? In difficult times, Christianity proved more conducive to human flourishing than any other religion in Rome. But as sincere, repentant conversions increased, so did insincere, politically motivated ones. With such a mixed membership, what was the Church to do?
Holiness or Unity: An Ark or a Kingdom?
Carthaginian Bishop, Donatus Magnus, argued that the holy Church ought to be an alternative society, a counter-culture, differentiated not by tacky art, but by outstanding morality. They will know that we are Christians by our love. What has Christ to do with a Church muddied with those who love neither God nor neighbor? The Donatist vision of the Church is like Noah’s Ark: an escape craft shielding the holy from the defiling waters of the world.
But as the Donatists pulled back from the world, Catholic bishop St. Augustine drove further into it. He fought tooth and nail to protect the Church from schism, to preserve the unity of Christ’s one bride. He was certain of the church’s destiny to inherit, absorb, and rule the nations of the world. Knowing the Church’s political hand and unwilling to fold it, Augustine saw a Church “poised, ready to fulfill what it considered its historic mission, to dominate, to absorb, to lead a whole Empire. ‘Ask Me, and I shall give the uttermost parts of the earth as Thy possession.’“1 As God grew the Church in size and authority, God’s Law was to become the law of the land.
The Donatists wanted to see a Church governed by the Law of God; the Catholics wanted to see a world governed by the Law of God. The Donatists recognized the Church by its holiness; the Catholics recognized the Church by its oneness, knowing that God would separate the sincere from the insincere one day.
The American Church and Cultural Change
This attempt to redefine the Church was significant in 4th century Rome because the Church steered the culture. Our society’s attempt to redefine marriage in 21st century America is a sign of the culture steering the Church. Recent polls demonstrate that approximately 60% of American Christians support the redefinition of marriage: “Christianity is ultimately taking the side of equality and liberty,” writes one forward-looking blogger.
Today, is the American Church an Ark or a Kingdom? Those churches that would break from tradition can’t call themselves an Ark in the Donatist sense. In the 4th century, the Donatists denounced the Catholic church in addition to denouncing the world. But by breaking with the Church’s traditional teaching, same-sex affirming churches denounce the Catholic church instead of denouncing the world. The way forward for the Church has never been being led by the world. In whatever shape or size she has ever found herself, the way forward has always been the same: working out the difficult tension between holiness and unity in obedience to Christ.
The American Church is certainly at least an Ark, the counter-society who lives according to God’s order. We’ll see which society is healthier in fifty years. But the American Church is not just the Church in America, but the Church for America. Her members know that “the earth is the Lord’s” and will continue the slow, humble struggle of gaining godly influence and positions of leadership in every public sector of American society, awaiting the day that “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.”2
1. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (University of California: Berkeley, 2007) 214.
2. Psalm 24:1; Revelation 11:15.
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