ecclesiola

January 26, 2010

(Greek, “little church”)

This refers to small churches within big churches which met together for spiritual nourishment. The purpose was to revive the spiritual life and commitment of the church through a committed nuclei. The implied idea often became that this was the true church of committed believers meeting within the larger church of nominal Christians. The strong being separated from the weak so that they could, in theory, further strengthen themselves and make the weak strong. The ecclesiola were first formally developed by the pietists and popularized by Philip Jacob Spener. Many Lutherans opposed these meetings believing that the allowance of such was divisive, evidenced separatism, and amounted to spiritual pride. They also feared that such meetings, without qualified clergy, could produce heretical misinterpretations of doctrine.

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