What does 'catholic' mean in the creed?

In 'one holy catholic and apostolic church', catholic (from the Greek for 'according to the whole') means universal, the church spread through all times, places, and peoples, rather than referring specifically to the Roman Catholic Church.

What is the difference between the visible and invisible church?

The visible church is the organized community with its members, ministers, and sacraments, while the invisible church refers to the whole company of those truly united to Christ, known fully only to God.

Nature and Marks of the Church

This topic examines what the church is and the four credal marks (one, holy, catholic, apostolic) by which Christians identify the true church.

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Definition

The doctrine of what constitutes the church and of its defining characteristics of unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.

Scope

This topic surveys the principal biblical images and theological models of the church (body of Christ, people of God, temple of the Spirit, communion, sacrament, herald, servant), the meaning of the four marks confessed in the Nicene Creed, the distinction between the visible and invisible church, and the relation of the local to the universal church. It includes Reformation criteria for the true church (word and sacrament) and ecumenical reflection. The treatment is descriptive, comparing the models and traditions.

Core questions

What is the church, theologically considered?
What do the four marks of the church mean?
How are the visible and invisible church related?
What criteria identify the true church?

Key theories

Models of the church: Avery Dulles's typology of complementary models, the church as institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald, servant (and later community of disciples), each illuminating an aspect of the church's reality.
Church as sacrament of salvation: The Vatican II account of the church as a kind of sacrament or sign and instrument of communion with God and unity among all people, integrating institutional and communion dimensions.

History

The marks were confessed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) and used in later controversies to identify the true church. The Reformers reinterpreted catholicity and apostolicity around the gospel, proposing word and sacrament as the marks. The twentieth century saw a flowering of ecclesiology, with Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, the ressourcement theologians, and ecumenical convergence on the church as communion.

Debates

Where the one church subsists: Whether the one church of the creed is identical with a single institution or 'subsists in' the Catholic Church while elements of it exist elsewhere, and how Protestant and Orthodox bodies relate to it.
Institutional versus communion ecclesiology: Whether to emphasize the church as a structured, hierarchical institution or as a Spirit-constituted communion of persons, with implications for authority and unity.

Key figures

Cyprian of Carthage
Augustine of Hippo
Avery Dulles
Henri de Lubac

Seminal works

lumengentium1964
dulles1974
mcgrath2016

Frequently asked questions

What does 'catholic' mean in the creed?: In 'one holy catholic and apostolic church', catholic (from the Greek for 'according to the whole') means universal, the church spread through all times, places, and peoples, rather than referring specifically to the Roman Catholic Church.
What is the difference between the visible and invisible church?: The visible church is the organized community with its members, ministers, and sacraments, while the invisible church refers to the whole company of those truly united to Christ, known fully only to God.