Faith & RitualGreek → English
Ecclesiology
/ɪˌkliːziˈɒlədʒi/noun
The theology of what the church is, how it is ordered and what authority it holds.
The Greek roots
ἐκκλησία
ekklēsía
assembly, church
λόγος
lógos
account, study
Literally: “study of the assembly”
The story of the word
ἐκκλησία literally means those called out, from ἐκ and καλέω, and in classical Athens it was the citizen assembly summoned by a herald to vote on war and taxes. The Greek Old Testament used it for the congregation of Israel, and the New Testament for the Christian body, so the political word became the religious one. The English term was coined around 1837 by Cambridge men studying church architecture, and only later shifted to doctrine.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
ecclesiasticalEcclesiastesparacletetheology
In a sentence
Their disagreement was not about God but about ecclesiology: who decides, and on whose authority.