New Testament Pattern: An Exegetical Enquiry into the ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’ Dualism

What is the nature of Christian unity? Is it Sacramental, Organic, Federal, Spiritual? These are questions that demand careful examination when different Christian traditions are drawing closer to one another in a common desire to heal the divisions that hinder the witness of the Church to the world. In any attempt to deal with these questions, full weight must be given to the evidence of the New Testament itself: what kind of unity does it reveal?

In New Testament Pattern, Jean-Louis Leuba reveals a two-fold framework of unity in the New Testament. One strand - in its witness to Christ, to the Apostles and to the Church - emphasises the institutional, traditional and particular. The other strand emphasises the personal, dynamic and universal. Yet the two strands are actually one. Their unity is more comprehensive, more creative, than any undifferentiated unity could be, with important implications for ecumenism and broader scriptural study.