Kirche im Neuen Testament

New Testament research over the past couple of decades has added greatly to our knowledge of the early Christian churches. It makes sense to prepare and use these results to initiate a fresh conversation between biblical and systematic theology on ecclesiology. In a first step, the twenty-four theses here offer observations on the terminology of New Testament speech about the church, describe in a second how, by taking into account the most important historical questions, the church came into being in the first and second centuries and, in a third, reflect on the guideline to the nature of the church, the so-called notae ecclesiae of the creed. The goal of the theses is the biblical foundation of an ecumenical ecclesiology.