We Believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (Ancient Christian Doctrine)

by Angelo Di Berardino

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2010

Overview

When was the church founded? Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God and not of a religious organization subsequently called church. We don’t find in the Gospels expressions which make reference to the foundation of a new religious community, a new and distinct community of followers of Jesus. But after the resurrection of Jesus, his followers, as a result of his express command, gather together not only those from the people of Israel but men and women of all nations. The final clauses of the Nicene Creed spell out, briefly and to the point, the church’s self-understanding in these early centuries. Angelo Di Berardino assembles a wide range of texts and teachers of the church during these years to enrich our understanding and deepen our faith in the great mysteries expressed here. The Creed quickly hits the four marks of the church—that it is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic.” What do we mean by professing each of these? Di Berardino helps us to give an answer with the help of the fathers of the church. The volume closes, as does the Creed, with a consideration of baptism the traditional entrance for people into the church and two central features of the church in the future—the expectation that all of God’s people will enjoy the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Product Details

• Title: We Believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
• Author: Angelo Di Berardino
• Series: Ancient Christian Doctrine
• Volume: 5
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2010
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Nicene Creed; Catholic Church › History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600; Church › Marks
• ISBNs: 9780830867424, 9780830825356, 0830867422, 0830825355
• Resource ID: LLS:WEBELIEVECHURCH
• Resource Type: Systematic Theology
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:07:04Z

About Angelo Di Berardino

Angelo Di Berardino is president and professor of patrology at the Augustinian Patristic Institute (Augustinianum) in Rome. He is the editor or author of magisterial works on the early church, including Encyclopedia of the Early Church (recently updated and expanded in Italian as Nuova dizionario patristico e di antichità cristiane and Patrology: The Eastern Fathers from the Council of Chalcedon to John of Damascus. He also serves as the Italian-language editor for the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. General Editor Thomas C. Oden,  formerly the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology at The Theological School, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, is the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. The author of numerous books, including a highly regarded three-volume systematic theology, he also serves as a general editor for Ancient Christian Texts and as director of the Center for Early African Christianity.