Ecclesia semper reformanda est
Ecclesia semper reformanda est is a phrase first greatly popularized by the Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth in 1947, allegedly deriving from a saying of St. Augustine. It most often refers to the conviction of certain Reformed Protestant theologians that the Christian Church must continually re-examine itself in order to maintain its purity of doctrine and practice.
History
An early example is Jodocus van Lodenstein, Beschouwinge van Zion , Amsterdam, 1674–1678, who claims the "truth... that also in the Church there is always much to reform".A variation of the term, Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda, also used by Karl Barth, refers to the desire of an "erudite man" cited by Jodocus van Lodenstein that the Church should not be called "Reformata", but "Reformanda".
Protestantism
It is widely but informally used in Reformed and Presbyterian churches today.Catholic Church
The first term was used by Hans Küng and other ecclesiastical reformers of the Catholic Church who were influenced by the spirit of Vatican II of the 1960s.The Catholic Church applied the idea to personal ad institutional reformation in the document Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council, nr. 8: "Dum vero Christus, "sanctus, innocens, impollutus", peccatum non novit, sed sola delicta populi repropitiare venit, Ecclesia in proprio sinu peccatores complectens, sancta simul et semper purificanda, poenitentiam et renovationem continuo prosequitur": "While Christ, holy, innocent and undefiled knew nothing of sin, but came to expiate only the sins of the people, the Church, embracing in its bosom sinners, at the same time holy and always in need of being purified, always follows the way of penance and renewal."
This latter usage appears in a 2009 pastoral letter by Bishop Ralph Walker Nickless that encourages a hermeneutic of continuity in Catholic teaching and practice.
In popular culture
The phrase is also put into the mouth of the fictional Pope Gelasius III in Mary Doria Russell's 1998 novel Children of God.The phrase semper reformanda was used as a recurring slogan of Reform Club members in the 2022 Filipino novel Revolution: 80 Days.