What is the Church? Evaluating Different Models
February 14, 2025
7,936
314
348
8.34%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Gospel Simplicity Episodes Around February 14, 2025
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
38:23Now PlayingWhat is the Church? Evaluating Different Models
Chapters
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelWant to take your study of the Bible and Church History to the next level? Try Logos, the software I use both for personal and academic work. Use the link below to get two free months
People spend a lot of time arguing about which church is the true church, how it should be run, and many other things. However, we spend relatively little time asking a more basic question: what is the church?
In this video, I evaluate five conceptions of the church: Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, and Servant. In so doing, I ask what the model conveys, what binds the members together, who benefits from it, and what is its goal. I also explore strengths and weaknesses before weighing in at the end regarding my preferred model.
This video is, in large part, a summary of the great work, Models of the Church, by the Catholic theologian Avery Cardinal Dulles.
Read the book
Want to read the Desert Fathers with me? Join my book club! If you become a patron at any tier, you can join my every other week book club, and this semester we'll be reading the Desert Fathers together.
Support the channel:
Timestamps:
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.









