Staatsreligion, Volkskirche oder Gemeinschaft der Heiligen? Das Christentum in der Spätantike: eine Standortbestimmung

Abstract

The paper deals with ecclesiastical reality and ecclesiological reflection in Late Antiquity. The former self-definition of the Church as a community of martyrs was challenged by the fact that after the end of the persecutions, many people entered the Church, while it turned out to be difficult to evaluate their conversion in depth. In the eyes of many eager Christians, the Church became increasingly a part of the world instead of its counterpart. While on the one hand, asceticism gained prominence as alternative to the „worldly“ behavior of bishops and Christians, on the other hand the inner strength of the Church lay in the ability to cope with those „living saints“ as well as with the ordinary believers. The Church of Late Antiquity thus proved to be a Volkskirche, that is, a community with flexible frontiers but with a clear centre: the community of saints, that is, the community of saintly living men and women and of those who were no saints themselves in a proper sense but participated in the former's cult.