Dogmatic Ecclesiology: The Priestly Catholicity of the Church

by Tom Greggs

Ecclesiology is a key issue for the present age of church history. This groundbreaking work by one of today's leading theologians offers a major Protestant ecclesiology for the church catholic. This volume, the first of three, considers the priesthood of the church in light of the priesthood of Christ. Tom Greggs shows the connection between Christ's work as high priest and the universal church's role in salvation. All together, the three volumes will offer a major statement on the doctrine of the church for Christians from a variety of backgrounds.

Genres: Theology

560 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Tom Greggs is Professor of Historical and Doctrinal Theology at the University of Aberdeen. Tom is a Local Preacher in the Methodist Church, and has given sermons around the world. He has preached at Canterbury Cathedral, and was a regular preacher at Easter People. He has appeared regularly on the radio. Tom is the author of "Theology against Religion: Constructive Dialogues with Bonhoeffer and Barth,"and "Barth, Origen, and Universal Salvation: Restoring Particularity."

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was disappointed not to be able to meet Tom Greggs when I attended a conference at King’s College (University of Aberdeen) earlier this year. However, one of his grad students shared a bit of the, now Princeton, professor’s approach. I was intrigued and pleased. Upon reading Dogmatic Ecclesiology: Volume One: The Priestly Catholicity of the Church, I still find myself pleased and intrigued while hoping that his move to the New Jersey seminary will not interminably delay the last two volumes.

The aspect I truly appreciated about the work was that Greggs did not want to emphasize the matters of polity and hierarchy seen in too many works on the church. Rather, he emphasizes: “The primary condition of the church is the event of the coming of the Holy Spirit, who is present within the variety and plurality of the community in all its diversity, and acts upon the community to make it the church.” (p. liii) This powerful definition is fervently repeated throughout the volume, along with the insistence that the church is for the world. “The world does not exist for the sake of the church; the church exists for the sake of the world. To fail to understand this is to fail to grasp the most fundamental of things that can be said about the church.” (p. 131).

The entire volume is consistent in applying every aspect of the church’s existence and purpose to a double axis: vertical in relation to God and horizontal in relation to the other of humanity and the world. Even in his initial summary of the Holy Spirit as event that establishes the church, he writes: “This event frees the believer to participate in the divine ways of love and grace in order to know the benefits of salvation and love the Father (vertically). But this event is simultaneously—in that participation in God’s love and grace—the freedom to love other humans through interhuman as well as divine-human restorative participation in grace within the givenness of the community (horizontal).” (p. 1) We see this cross-shaped emphasis of vertical and horizontal in nearly every chapter. In “The High Priesthood of Christ,” we see obedience to and love for the Father (vertical) and service to and love for the creature (horizontally)…” (pp. 60-61). In writing of “Participative Ontology and the Church’s Internal Priesthood,” he states: “To be filled with the Spirit is to be opened, in the mediated conditions of the creaturely (and lapsed) quotidian givenness of space and time, fully to God and the world—freed for existence vertically toward God and horizontally towards the rest of creation, …” (pp. 92-93).

In discussing the priestly ontology of the church (Chapter 4), Greggs notes: “The church’s purpose as a community of praise, worship, and adoration of God (vertical relation) is to be a representative, even mediating, of witness (its horizontal relation) to the world of the reality of Christ and his gospel.” (p. 130) In Chapter 5 (“Baptism”), there is an emphasis on the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, but a note on human willingness. “The willing works itself out in a twofold horizontal and vertical dynamic. The willing of the candidate to be baptized with water in conforming to the command of Christ is an ordering of oneself to Him (with the prevenient aid of the Spirit, whose baptism is the basis on which the believer is able to present herself in conformity to the divine ordinance, and through which the believe’s heart is turned outwards to participate in the divine love and economy of grace).” (p. 168) Holy Communion is suggested as, “…an expression both of the community’s relationship to Christ’s priestly mediation between God and humanity (what we might think of as ‘the vertical’), which is commemorated through the metonymous sharing of bread and wine in remembrance of the salvific events of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; and of the horizontal effects of salvation for creaturely life in the present.” (p. 225)

I see no overt reference to this twofold dimension in the chapter on the Communion of the Saints, but it reappears in the chapter on “Intercessory Prayer.” Using a prayer in Ephesians 3:16-17 as an example, we see: “First, in prayer, the writer looks to the glory of God (in the vertical dimension, we might say). Second, in looking to that glory the writer immediately concerns himself with others (the recipient community or communities of the letter). (p. 289) In terms of “Thanksgiving and Praise,” we read: “…the church participates in the form of divine grace analogously in faith by its individual members being orientated towards one another in grace (horizontally) as well as towards God (vertically).” (p. 314) A word of caution on “Sanctification” appears when Greggs reminds us: “Sanctified worship has a corporate form and is aware of the dynamic relation of the vertical and horizontal axes of the Christian life—the God who loves the world and the world which is beloved of God.” (p. 395) In Chapter 12’s section on “The Interaction of Loving on Vertical and Horizontal Axes,” we read: “By loving on the horizontal axis, the creature participates in the divine loving of creation which accords with the constancy of the divine being.” (p. 405) Chapter 13 observes: “…the church internal to itself contains members who participate by the Spirit in Christ’s full human priesthood in living fully fo God (vertically) and for one another (horizontally), …” (p. 428).

Of course, a 450 page work of theological discussion is much more complex than this short caricature could be. Suffice it to say that Dogmatic Ecclesiology: Volume One: The Priestly Catholicity of the Church is a bold effort to define the essence and function of the Church within an understanding of God Who is Love. Rather than focusing on historical theology or doctrinal differences, Greggs seeks to find the essence in God’s relationship within the Trinity and how that illuminates the church’s existence and eschaton. This will definitely not be the last time I peruse these pages and meditate on their profundity.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent discussion of ecclesiology from the the perspective of Christ's priesthood. Greggs writes with an engaging style and with conviction. If one is looking for a primer on the basics of ecclesiology, this is not the book for you. But if you are looking for a trenchant discussion of ecclesiology and how Christ's priesthood bears on such topics as prayer, the Lord's Supper and the communion of the saints, then this is a must read. I look forward to the release of the subsequent volumes of his Dogmatic Ecclesiology. Highly recommended.

[Dustin Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It’s theological to its core, which I appreciated. While there were points I doubt or disagree with, his focus on the outward facing church is encouraging and to be commended. I also appreciated his theocentric approach to ecclesiology. I look forward to reading volumes 2 & 3.

[Martin Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book not only offers a powerful substantive theological treatment of ecclesiology as a proper doctrine rather than a discussion of ecclesiastical practice, but breathes new life into the discipline of systematic theology. The next two volumes promise to be just as insightful and original.