교회 정체성 정립의 기준: 칼빈의 비가시적 교회 개념을 중심으로 = A Standard for Establishing the Identity of the Church: Focusing on Calvin’s Idea of the Invisible Church

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the ecclesiology of John Calvin in order to reconsider the identity and fundamental mission of the church that the Korean church today should remember. This study focuses on the origin and background of Calvin’s concept of the invisible church. To this end, this study first examines the ecclesiology of Cyprian and Augustine in the early church, and the ecclesiology in the representative confessions of the Lutheran and Reformed camps during the Reformation. The ecclesiology of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which inherited Calvin’s ecclesiology, is also investigated. According to Calvin, the invisible church is a transcendent and spiritual entity that consists of the total number of people elected by God. On the other hand, the visible church is a worshiping community that professes the same faith, and a mixed community that includes not only the elected believers but also the reprobate hypocrites. He understood the visible church and the invisible church as two entities that should be distinguished from each other but are not separate. Through this dual church concept, Calvin emphasized the divine authority and necessity of the external ministry that the visible church. In addition, he presented the spiritual principles of the invisible church as a standard for diagnosing the reality of the visible church and promoting continuous reform.
In Calvin’s ecclesiology, the spiritual principles of the invisible church are that God has given the grace of salvation as the Father of all believers, that the system and order of the church must be implemented according to the absolute sovereignty of Christ, the only head of the church, and that the fellowship and unity of the church can be maintained through the union of love from God.