Local and Universal: A Free Church Account of Ecclesial Catholicity (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), C. Ryan Fields. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514006719), 2024.
Summary: A theological exploration of the contribution of churches in the free church, locally governed tradition, to the wider church’s understanding of catholicity.
I am a member of a Brethren Church. I am writing this review after a meeting of our church’s governance team. As a governing body, in consultation with our congregation, we make decisions on everything from building use to the calling of pastors and commending them for ordination. We host food pantries, community gardens and support ministries in collaboration with other churches in our community as well as participate in denominational matters from planting new churches, to supporting mission efforts in other countries and theological training at our seminary.
Given our grassroots up, local character, can it be said that we are in any sense “catholic,” that is, truly a part of the universal church over which Jesus is Lord? Some may contend that while we may be in Christ, we are not catholic, because we are not part of a hierarchy, particularly one that may trace its roots through its succession of bishops back to Peter. C. Ryan Fields, in this book, makes the case that while this may be an aspect, or particular expression of catholicity, it overlooks other expressions of catholicity that may be evident in other bodies and particularly those understood as within the “Free Church” tradition. “Free Church” is defined in the book as including congregational polity, a “low” liturgy, eschewing adherence to creedal statements, valuing individual conscience and religious freedom and insisting on a separation of church and state.
Fields goes about this by first establishing the biblical warrant for the doctrine of catholicity. He then considers the development of this doctrine from apostolic to present times, summarizing this in a ten-fold taxonomy:
- Holistic Catholicity: connected to the whole vs. sectarianism
- Geographical Catholicity: embracing “all places” vs. provincialism
- Missional Catholicity: reaching “all peoples” vs. exclusionism
- Chronological Catholicity: commonality through “all times” vs novelty
- Orthodox Catholicity: doctrinal faithfulness vs. heresy or apostasy
- Institutional Catholicity: visible mediation vs. invisible conceptions and schismatic impulse
- Differentiated Catholicity: diverse identity and contribution vs. uniformity
- Christological Catholicity: emphasis on Christological connection vs. ecclesial minimalism
- Liturgical Catholicity: sacramental continuity vs. ingenuity
- Numerical catholicity: greatest adherence vs. minority status
Fields then takes the rest of the book to contrast the Anglican church with the Free Churches. Fields sees Anglicanism fulfilling many aspects of the taxonomy but argues that this may be at the expense of a certain uniformity that fails to express the true unity in a differentiated diversity that also marks catholicity. In the three following chapters, he explores Free Church Catholicity. He starts with its different Reformation expressions: Anabaptist, Puritan, and Baptist. Each of these he sees as characterized not as starting something new but retrieving something ancient that is missing. They revealed a Reformation ecclesiology, interacted with the broader tradition and claimed to preserve catholicity in essentials. He then proceeds in the two following chapters to develop the idea of Free Church catholicity as local catholicity–that where one finds catholicity embodied is in placed, local congregations that express in word and sacrament the diverse, yet united catholicity of the church. Yet this also requires the local body to embrace connectedness to the rest of the body, including other local churches.
This last strikes me as important. Without lived connection, we cannot embody catholicity locally, where it can have meaning for others. At the same time, Fields’ argument affirms not only the possibility of catholicity in the Free Church tradition but also the essential contribution to a robust catholicity these churches (my church among them!). While the Free Church may humbly learn from Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox believers, they needn’t be ashamed but also come bearing gifts of catholicity, enrich the whole body of Christ.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.