Within mainstream historiography the subject has languished in almost total oblivion. The first significant modern treatment of the doctrine by Roman Catholic theologians came in November 1964 during the Second Vatican Council with the publication of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. This stated that the faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophet-ical and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people, in the Church and in the world.

doi:10.4324/9780203166505-11

Chapter

Within mainstream historiography the subject has languished in almost total oblivion. The first significant modern treatment of the doctrine by Roman Catholic theologians came in November 1964 during the Second Vatican Council with the publication of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. This stated that the faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophet-ical and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people, in the Church and in the world.

Chapter

Within mainstream historiography the subject has languished in almost total oblivion. The first significant modern treatment of the doctrine by Roman Catholic theologians came in November 1964 during the Second Vatican Council with the publication of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. This stated that the faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophet-ical and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people, in the Church and in the world.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present volume, therefore, is to examine the complexity of the doctrine of the general priesthood against the changing fortunes of post-Reformation Protestantism. Though the concept of an active laity is not confined to one section of the western church, whether Protestant or Catholic, its recovery in modern times appears to be connected intimately with the rise of pan-Protestant evangelicalism with its strong emphasis on personal faith and conversion. This is the underlying hypothesis that the book as a whole sets out to examine. If scholars have neglected to study this development it is in part due to the fact that it is the modern history of the Christian rank and file. Moreover, as some of the later essays in the book suggest, the doctrine appears to be leading the church into organizationally uncharted waters where the outcome for traditional leadership structures is not easy to predict.