The Four Marks of the Church, also known as the Attributes of the Church, describes four distinctive adjectives of traditional Christian ecclesiology as expressed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed completed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381: "[We believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."

This ecumenical creed is today recited in the liturgies of the Catholic Church (both Latin and Eastern Rites), the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Moravian Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Methodist Churches, the Presbyterian Churches, the Anglican Communion, and by members of the  Reformed Churches, although they interpret it in very different ways, and some Protestants alter the word "Catholic" in the creed, replacing it with the word "Christian".

While many doctrines, based on both tradition and different interpretations of the Bible, distinguish one denomination from another (largely explaining why there are many different ones), the Four Marks represent a summary of what many clergy and theologians have historically considered to be the most important affirmations of Christianity.

History 

The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in the Christian Church since early Christianity. Allusions to them can be found in the writings of 2nd-century early Church Father and bishop Ignatius of Antioch. They were not established in doctrine until the First Council of Constantinople in 381 as an antidote to certain heresies that had crept into the Church in its early history. There the Council elaborated on the Nicene Creed, established by the First Council of Nicaea 56 years before by adding to the end a section that included the affirmation: "[We believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." The phrase remains in versions of the Nicene Creed.

In some languages, for example, German, the Latin "catholica" was substituted by "Christian" before the Reformation by some, although this was an anomaly and continues in use by some Protestant churches. Hence, "holy catholic" becomes "holy Christian."

Roman Catholics believe the description "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" to be applicable only to the Roman Catholic Church. They hold that "Christ established here on earth only one Church" and they believe in "the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church". While "there are numerous elements of sanctification and of truth which are found outside her structure", these, "as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity". The eastern Churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church thereby "lack something in their condition as particular Churches". The communities born out of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation "do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constituent element of the Church."

The Eastern Orthodox Church, in disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church, regards itself as the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and his apostles. The Oriental Orthodox Church disagrees with both and claims to be the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and his apostles, the "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" Church of the ancient Christian creeds and the only Church that has always kept the true Christology and faith declared by the first three councils, the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus affirmed by the Church Fathers and the sacred tradition.

The Augsburg Confession found within the Book of Concord, a compendium of belief of the Lutheran Churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church." When the Lutherans presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, they believe to have "showed that each article of faith and practice was true first of all to Holy Scripture, and then also to the teaching of the church fathers and the councils." As such, the Lutheran Churches traditionally hold that theirs represents the true visible Church.

Marks

One

This mark derives from the Pauline epistles, which state that the Church is "one". In , Paul the Apostle spoke of himself as having persecuted "the church of God", not just the local church in Jerusalem but the same church that he addresses at the beginning of that letter as "the church of God that is in Corinth" (). In the same letter, he tells Christians: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (), and declares that, "just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" ().

In , Paul writes: "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." This list of factors making Christians one body, one church, is doubtless not meant to be exhaustive, says Francis A. Sullivan, but it affirms the oneness of the body, the Church, through what Christians have in common—what they have communion in.

Elsewhere, Paul says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (). This statement was about Christians as individuals, but it applied to them also as groups, as local church, whether composed mainly of Jewish or Gentile Christians.

Holy 

The word holy in this sense means set apart for a special purpose by and for God. The Church is holy because it has been set apart to do God's work, and because God is present in it. Christians understand the holiness of the Church to derive from Christ's holiness.

Catholic

The word catholic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective  (romanized: katholikos), meaning "general", "universal". It is associated with the Greek adverb  (katholou), meaning "according to the whole", "entirely", or "in general", a combination of the preposition  meaning "according to" and the adjective  meaning "whole".

Applied to the Church, the adjective "catholic" means that in the Church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people. The adjective can be applied not only to the Church as spread throughout the world but also to each local manifestation of the Church, in each of which nothing essential is lacking for it to be the genuine body of Christ.

For his subjects, Roman Emperor Theodosius I restricted the term "catholic Christians" to believers in "the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity", and applied the name "heretics" to others (Edict of Thessalonica of 27 February 380).

Apostolic

This describes the Church's foundation and beliefs as rooted and continuing in the living tradition of the apostles of Jesus. The Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East each claim to have preserved the original teaching of the apostles. They also have apostolic succession in that their bishops derive their authority through a direct line of laying on of hands from the apostles, a claim that they accept can be made by the other churches in this group. The Anglican Communion, as well as many Lutheran Churches such as the Church of Sweden, likewise teach the doctrine of apostolic succession. Other Christian denominations, on the other hand, usually hold that what preserves apostolic continuity is the written word: as Bruce Milne put it, "A church is apostolic as it recognizes in practice the supreme authority of the apostolic scriptures."

See also 
 Marks of the Church (Protestantism)
 State church of the Roman Empire

References

Further reading 
 The Symbol of Faith by Father Thomas Hopko
 Four Marks of the Church by Kenneth D. Whitehead
 The Four Marks of the Church by Fr. William Saunders
 Marks of the Church by Loyola Press

4 (number)
Catholic ecclesiology
Christian terminology
Christian theology
Ecclesiology
Nicene Creed
교회의 네 가지 속성 또는 교회의 네 가지 특징은 기독교를 나타내는 특유의 주요 특징 네 가지인 하나인 교회, 거룩한 교회, 보편된 교회, 사도로부터 이어오는 교회를 한데 묶어 일컫는 용어이다. 교회가 이러한 네 가지 속성 내지는 특징을 지니고 있다는 관점은 381년 제1차 콘스탄티노폴리스 공의회에서 니케아 콘스탄티노폴리스 신경을 제정하면서 처음으로 등장하기 시작했으며, 신경에는 교회에 대해 다음과 같이 규정짓는 구절이 나온다.

“하나이고 거룩하고 보편되며 사도로부터 이어오는 교회를 믿나이다.”

서로 불가분의 관계인 이 네 가지 속성은 교회와 교회 사명의 본질적 특성을 나타낸다.

로마 가톨릭교회는 본 교회만이 최초로 예수 그리스도에 의해 세워진 유일한 정통 기독교이며, 네 가지 특징을 모두 지니고 있다고 자부하고 있다.

네 가지 속성

하나인 교회 

참된 교회의 특징은 하나라는 것이다. 교회는 하나이다. 교회는 오직 하나뿐인 하느님을 믿고 있고, 하나의 신앙을 고백하며, 하나의 세례로 태어나며, 오직 하나의 몸을 이루고, 하나뿐인 성령으로부터 생명을 얻기 때문이다. 또한 교회는 그 설립자로 보아 하나이다. 그리스도는 교회를 여러 개 세우지 않고 오직 하나만 세웠다. 《가톨릭교회 교리서》에 따르면, 그리스도가 세운 교회는 사도 베드로 위에 세운 교회 하나뿐이다.

이 하나뿐인 교회는 베드로의 후계자인 교황과 일치해 있는 가톨릭교회다. 즉 가톨릭교회야말로 그리스도가 직접 세운 유일한 교회라는 것이다.

거룩한 교회 

참된 교회의 둘째 특징은 거룩하다는 것이다. 거룩한 하느님이 교회를 세웠고, 그리스도가 교회를 거룩하게 하려고 자신을 바쳤으며, 거룩한 성령이 교회에 생명을 주기 때문이다. 아울러 교회는 칠성사를 통하여 끊임없이 거룩하게 된다. 가톨릭교회 교리서에 따르면, 칠성사를 모두 온전히 거행하는 교회는 가톨릭교회뿐이다. 여기서 거룩하다는 것은 하느님과 일치함을 뜻하며 이러한 일치는 예수 그리스도와 성령의 활동 덕택이다.

교회가 거룩하다는 것은 윤리적인 의미에서 거룩하다는 것이 아니다. 교회의 거룩함은 예수 그리스도가 교회를 자신의 신부로 삼아 사랑하였고, 교회를 거룩하게 하기 위하여 자기 자신을 바쳤으며, 교회를 자신의 몸으로 삼았다는 믿음에 근거한다. 그래서 사도 바오로도 문제가 많던 코린토 교회 신자들을 ‘성도들’이라고 불렀던 것이다. 따라서 “자기 품에 죄인들을 안고 있어 거룩하면서도 언제나 정화되어야 하는 교회는 끊임없이 참회와 쇄신을 추구한다.”

보편된 교회 

참된 교회의 셋째 특징은 가톨릭(보편되다, 공번되다)이다. ‘가톨릭’이라는 말은 ‘전체’ 혹은 ‘완전성’의 의미를 지닌 ‘보편적’이라는 뜻을 가지고 있다. 교회는 신앙 전체를 선포하며 구원에 필요한 모든 방법을 충만히 수행한다. 그리스도가 교회에 현존하고 있으므로 진리를 온전히 지니고 있고, 이를 모든 시대, 모든 사람에게 전하기 때문이다. 그래서 안티오키아의 이냐시오(35년 - 110년)는 스미르나인들에게 보낸 서간에서 “그리스도 예수님께서 계시는 곳에 가톨릭교회가 있다.”고 말했다. 또한 교회는 모든 시대, 모든 사람을 위하기 때문에 다양한 국가와 사회와 문화 속에 뿌리를 내리지만 그리스도 안에서 완전한 일치를 이루고 있다. 따라서 교회는 보편된다. 서로 다른 시대, 서로 다른 곳에서, 서로 다른 환경 속에 사는 신자들이 같은 신앙 안에서 일치를 이루고 있다는 것이다.

사도로부터 이어오는 교회 

참된 교회의 넷째 특징은 사도로부터 이어오는 교회라는 것이다. 가톨릭교회는 스스로 사도로부터 이어져 내려오는 교회라고 주장한다. 그리스도는 베드로 사도를 중심으로 열두 사도 위에 교회를 세웠다. 열두 사도는 자신이 죽기 전에 각자 자신이 담당하던 교회를 위하여 봉사할 후계자를 선정했으며, 그 사도들의 후계자가 주교다. 그래서 모든 가톨릭교회의 주교의 계보를 거슬러 올라가다 보면 열두 사도 중 한 사람까지 거슬러 올라가게 된다.

또한 사도들로부터 이어져 내려오는 교회는 열두 사도가 가르친 것과 똑같은 복음과 교리를 가르친다. 가톨릭교회 안에는 사도들의 가르침과 고귀한 유산이 있다. 따라서 그리스도는 사도들의 후계자인 교황과 주교단 안에 현존하는 베드로와 다른 사도들을 통해 교회를 다스린다.

같이 보기 
 니케아 콘스탄티노폴리스 신경
 로마 가톨릭교회
 제1차 콘스탄티노폴리스 공의회

각주 

가톨릭 신학과 교리
교회론
기독교 용어
니케아 신경
명수 4