church discipline
Ecclesiastical corrective measures
Church discipline is the practice of enforcing moral and doctrinal standards within a religious congregation, ranging from private correction to public rebuke to excommunication.
The term appears most often in Protestant contexts, where congregations may discipline members for unrepentant sin, heresy, or conduct deemed incompatible with membership: The elders initiated church discipline after repeated warnings went unheeded.
- eldersSenior community members
- heresyBelief opposing official doctrine
- canon lawReligious institutional regulations
- repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
- moderatorOne who presates proceedings
excommunication · putting out · accountability · tribunal · apostasy · shunning · congregation · confession · forgiveness · pastoral care · sin · adjudication · orthodoxy · bylaws · obedience · schism · expulsion · mercy
- Church ReformCounter-Reformation, Protestant Reformation, Council of Trent, Vatican II, 95 Theses
- early churchapostles, apostolic fathers, Acts of the Apostles, Council of Nicaea, Paul
- Anabaptist traditionsadult baptism, plain dress, foot washing, nonresistance, shunning
- church lawcanon law, papal bull, papal bulls, papal decree, papal authority
- church penaltiesexcommunication, interdict, suspension, anathema, censure
- Dutch ReformedSynod of Dort, Heidelberg Catechism, Calvinism, predestination, TULIP
church disciplinesecular law
Legal code without religious basis
criminal prosecution · civil penalty · governmental authority · police action
church disciplinechurch fellowship
Social bond among congregants
restoration · reconciliation · unconditional acceptance · reinstatement · absolution
church disciplinepermissiveness
Tolerance of behavior others forbid
lack of accountability · moral relativism · anything goes · licentiousness · libertinism