Communio Protestantism
The catholic ecclesiology of the Reformation
Contrary to the mythology that you might hear from Roman Catholic apologists, the Reformation was not an individualistic movement but a catholic and ecclesial movement. It was an effort to restore the catholicity to the church. This is evident in a number of ways.
All the Reformers affirmed the creedal claims that the church is one and catholic. A few quotations will illustrate.
*Marin Bucer (quoted in John T. McNeill, Unitive Protestantism, 77): “The church is the congregation and society of those who are thus in our Lord Jesus Christ gathered out of the world and associated together, that they may be one body and members one of another; each one of whom has an office and work for the common edification of the whole body and of all the members.”
*The Geneva Catechism, explaining the meaning of “catholic”: “This word means that as there is but one Head of the faithful so they ought all to be united in one body. Thus there are not several churches, but only one, which is extended throughout the world.”
*Calvin: “The true stability of the church, the restoration of the world, consists in this, that the elect be gathered into the unity of the faith, so that with one consent all may lift their hearts to God.” He was horrified by the “frightful mutilation of Christ’s body” and stated that “Such is the value which the Lord sets upon the communion of his church that all who contumaciously alienate themselves from any Christian society in which the true ministry of the word and sacraments is maintained, he regards as deserters of religion.”
The Reformers’ emphasis on the invisible church didn’t avoid concern with the visible church. On the contrary, their emphasis on the invisible church was in service of their efforts to reform the visible. They wanted to restore the visibility of the church as church.