Delusion of Truth: Church as Community
Delusion of Truth: Church as Community

Summary/Abstract: Today, the word Pharisee means a self-righteous or hypocritical person. In the New Testament they have been portrayed as those who symbolically expressed the Law in their words, but not always in their deeds, falsifying the reality of life and salvation. Even more, expressing the Law they suffocated freedom of thought as we comprehend it today. Christ in the Gospel showed mercy to honest sinners at the same time despising righteous hypocrites. Honest relationships within a community bring different dynamics in comparison to forced hypocrisy. In a fragmentary look at Church law, the 8th canon of the 7th Ecumenical Council will be pinpointed. This canon brings the issue of freedom and honesty to the forefront of the Church’s concern for authentic community. At the same time, sincere concern needs to be expressed when some ecclesiastical laws promulgate “institutionalized” hypocrisy transforming the shape and content of the believing community. Established hypocrisy is a danger for genuine Church life, leading our conception of ecclesiology and dignity of human being to a death end. For that reason, this paper invites more sensitivity and respect for diversity of human thoughts which in the end could have positive theological outcomes. Allowing people within the Church to bring their freedom of mind, against hypocrisy, is nothing less than enriching the Church community as a whole.

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