ABSTRACT
In these ecumenical days most theologians, it would seem, use the word 'Church' (preceded by the definite article and often with a capital 'C') to refer to the whole community of Christians. As Max Stackhouse puts it, "More theologically, the term may be applied to the 'mystical body of Christ', to the company of believers of all times and places (church universal) or to those within and without the institutional church (including 'anonymous Christians' who belong to other religions) who are known by (or 'elected' by) God to be faithful (church invisible)".1 Inevitably, perhaps, writers who use the word in this way (and, of course, as a name for certain kinds of buildings in which Christians gather for worship) also apply it to the various branches or denominations of Christianity. This is not usually a problem if suitable adjectives are added, as in 'the United Reformed Church' or 'the Roman Catholic Church'. Such, however, is not always the case. It is not unusual, for instance, to find Roman Catholic writers occasionally referring to their particular denomination simply as 'the Church'. One such is Germain Grisez.
