„To jest owczarnia onego Dobrego Pasterza”. Pojęcie „prawdziwego” Kościoła w polskich szesnastowiecznych katechizmach

Abstract

The article discusses how the notion of the Church was understood and explained by authors of sixteenth-century Polish Catholic and Evangelical catechisms. Teaching of the constitution of a church was a basic pastoral duty and part of the rudimentary knowledge provided to the faithful. Six Catholic catechisms of the years 1553 to 1600 and thirteen Evangelical ones, which were published between 1543 and 1609, constitute the main source base, the latter manuals being penned under the influence of Luther, Melanchthon as well as South-German and Swiss theologians. Following the Tridentine programme, the Catholic authors present their Church as unified under the Pope’s authority and the only inheritor of the works of the Apostles. The veracity of its teaching is testified to with God’s unnatural interventions. The Protestant authors explain the basically coherent, relevant ideas of the Reformation’s protagonists. They teach about “the visible and outward Church”, which is manifested by all those congregations that are fed by God’s pure Word, and where the sacraments are duly administered. There is also “the inward and invisible Church”, which the faithful confess in the Credo. It comprises all disciples of Christ, who is the only head of His Church. Thus the teaching on the Church presented in the Evangelical sources that are employed belongs to the mainstream of sixteenth-century Protestantism and aptly illustrates the reception of Evangelical theologies in the Kingdom of Poland and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the analysed sources, arguments for the veracity of Church are always supplemented with the refutation of contradictory standpoints through reference to the Bible and the Church Fathers, mostly to Augustine. Despite strong polemical tone, the Biblical grounds of the Church could contribute to communication and understanding between Christians of antagonistic denominations, and this could sometimes result in conversion. The explanation of ecclesiological rudiments was easier for Catholic clergy, who referred to tradition and emotions, while Evangelical pastors could not ignore the abstract concepts of the “veracity” and “spiritual connectedness” of Christians, which were more difficult to render to the laity.