Many as one: Augustine’s onefold ecclesiology

Abstract

ABSTRACT Johannes van Oort claims that Augustine has an irreconcilable ‘two-fold ecclesiology,’ which separates the inwardness of unseen individual grace from the external empirical community. Efforts to unify Augustine’s ‘two-fold ecclesiology’ have hitherto focused on emphasizing the continuity between the invisible and the visible, the locus for which is often the manifestation of individual (invisible) grace in the context of the (visible) community. The present article brackets the debate about grace and the power of signs and focuses instead on the relationship between the individual and the community, broadly and loosely construed. Accordingly, the question arises, what is the relationship between individual and community? It is our conviction that drawing dichotomies between the individual and community, between the invisible and the visible, is unwarranted and in fact proves detrimental to understanding Augustine’s comprehensive approach to ecclesiology. By proposing a holistic approach to Augustine’s ecclesiology instead, we seek to accord community its central place in the Church as the culmination of individuality and vice-versa. In this way, we opt for an approach that reconciles Augustine’s ‘two-fold ecclesiology’.