Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 64:4 (Dec 2021)
Article: The Visible And Spiritual Church: Cyprian’s Pneumatology Amid Pastoral Crises
Author: D. Forrest Mills

JETS 64:4 (December 2021) p. 657

The Visible And Spiritual Church: Cyprian’s Pneumatology Amid Pastoral Crises

D. Forrest Mills*

* D. Forrest Mills is Associate Pastor of Family Ministry and Discipleship at Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, 900 Euclid Avenue, Bristol, VA 24201, and Adjunct Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2825 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY 40280. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Cyprian of Carthage was arguably the most influential Latin bishop of the mid-third century. During his episcopal tenure, schisms occurred in both Carthage and Rome over how to treat members of the church who had temporarily apostatized during a time of intense persecution. Cyprian intertwined the church and salvation to solve this problem. Much scholarship has noted that he connected the two, but relatively few works have examined how he defended this theology. A study of Cyprian’s complete corpus reveals that he turned to pneumatology when faced with the pastoral dilemmas of apostacy and schism. He held to an early notion of a spiritual church, which he defined as those the Holy Spirit indwelled. Cyprian argued that salvation could be found only within the church because the Spirit bestowed his saving presence only upon those within the church. Schism seemed to split the church, but the Spirit of God would not divide himself. Therefore, his presence remained with the one united church. Additionally, the divine Spirit also remained sovereign over the church and salvation. This article therefore contends that Cyprian intertwined the church and salvation through connecting both to the Holy Spirit, but Cyprian’s high pneumatology prevented him from conflating the visible church and the spiritual church together.

Key words: Cyprian of Carthage, Holy Spirit, the church, salvation, early church, schism, ecclesial unity, baptism, authority of bishops, pastoral theology

Cyprian of Carthage (bishop 248–258) arguably shaped the thought of other patristic writers in the Western church more than any other person besides Augustine of Hippo (bishop 394–430). Cyprian’s ideas persisted long after his martyrdom at the hands of Roman officials during the Valerian persecution (256–260). In fact, the Donatist controversy in the fourth and fifth centuries partly involved a dispute over who was following Cyprian’s theology better—Augustine or the Donatists.1 Cyprian’s legacy included his arguments for tying together the ministries of the church and the application of salvation.2 Many works have noted this relationship.

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