catholic, it's original and developing meaning

Beth · 10-03-2006, 05:20 PM

I've chosen to do a paper on the original and developing meaning of 'catholic' as it relates to the Nicene Creed ('one holy, catholic and apostolic church'). I've been told to look into what Iranaeus and Athanasius have to say about it, but don't really know where to start, as all I'm getting are Catholic journals that don't really fit what I'm looking for? Do you know of any literature to get me started?

Humility · 10-03-2006, 05:39 PM

doesn't it mean "universal"?

meaning that the Body of Christ (that is the Church) putting denominations aside is universal. So a lutheran, baptist, pentacostal, Presbyterian, Greek orthodox, etc... is the body of christ as long as they have true, faith in christ.

Beth · 10-03-2006, 05:54 PM

yeah, it does, but that doesn't fit into 15 pages.

goldenchild · 10-03-2006, 09:02 PM

All I can give you is the "Catholic" perspective

, but that's probably not what you're looking for if you've already decided various Catholic journals aren't the route you want to go. But props to you for taking a topic like this and trying to write 15 pages about it. I'm not sure I could.

Jay Tea · 10-03-2006, 09:21 PM

www.ccel.org has a number of writings of early church fathers. I don't know how searchable they are, but it's a start.

Lightknight · 10-03-2006, 09:36 PM

It pertained to all accepted Chrsitian churches of the early church. The Pentarchy is the first thing to come to mind, the churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, constantinople, Rome, and Alexandria. All of those were catholic at the time. As time went on, schisms took place (the great one in the 1000's was big) and eventually the Roman branch of Christianity claimed Catholic as their name only and whoever disagreed with them was not catholic (in other words, they weren't Christian).

Now adays we use it mainly to define what we consider a denomination of Christianity.

Beth · 10-04-2006, 08:25 AM

haha, it's not that a Catholic perspective isn't what I'm looking for, it's just that what comes up on a search isn't what I'm looking for... it's usually on something unrelated to the meaning of the word "catholic".

thanks for the help thus far!

Nate · 10-04-2006, 08:57 AM

Primary sources will easily be your best bet.

Reedolo · 10-04-2006, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beth

haha, it's not that a Catholic perspective isn't what I'm looking for, it's just that what comes up on a search isn't what I'm looking for... it's usually on something unrelated to the meaning of the word "catholic".

thanks for the help thus far!

I've always thought of it as meaning "universal" in the sense that it's open to anyone. Like, in the Old Testament, God's covenant with mankind wasn't universal, it was only with the Jews. But in the New Covenant, salvation is open to every single person. Christ died for everyone. Christ's atonement is universal, and everyone is called to be a part of His universal Church.