Eklezjotwórczy wymiar wiary chrześcijańskiej

Abstract

The paper sought to show the relation between Christian faith and the genesis, development, persistence, and ultimate realization of the Church. The author answers the following question: in what sense does Christian faith have a church-making character both in the very genesis of the Church and in its realization in history and its fulfillment in Eschaton? The Church is not only an institution derived from Jesus Christ, but an interpersonal reality, Divine-human, which is embodied in its members over centuries, until the end of the world. This ecclesial community in its historical scale is ever becoming, is born anew, develops, matures, is dynamic and not static. The formal foundations of the Church over the ages are ensured by institutional structures, granted by Christ, and are in service to permanent ecclesiogenesis in time and space. The Church as a personal being is made real in persons and manifested through persons. This process comes about owing to faith and through faith. Now faith being a response to Jesus’ call, contributes to the fellowship of the faithful who co-create the Church together with the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Thus is realized and fulfilled the faith of the Church – in its individual and social aspect – and thereby the Church grows both in an individual person and in the fellowship of persons. Faith aside to other church-making elements, such as prayer, hope, love, sacramental life, testimony etc – plays an essential role in the process of permanent ecclesiogenesis, which the paper sought to prove. Without faith there would be no Christ Church.