Excommunication

Background

The Korean term pamun (破門) is a Sino-Korean word that originally meant "to expel from a master's school." In church history it serves as the translation of the Latin excommunicatio ("putting out of fellowship"). The Catholic Church in Korea and Korean historical works mainly use the term pamun, while Korean Protestant church constitutions usually call the same penalty chulgyo (黜敎).

The church has cited the following passages as the biblical basis for this penalty:

• Matthew 18:15-17: a brother who has sinned is to be admonished, and if he will not hear even the church, he is to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican.
• 1 Corinthians 5:1-13: the one who has committed fornication is to be put out of the community.
• Titus 3:10: a person who causes division is to be rejected after a first and second admonition.

The early church excluded believers who had committed grave sins such as apostasy, murder, and adultery from Communion and received them back after a period of public penance.

Development

In the Middle Ages, excommunication came to carry political weight beyond discipline within the church.

• 1054: The papal legate Cardinal Humbert and the party of Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople excommunicated each other. This event is regarded as emblematic of the East–West Schism.
• 1076: Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Emperor Henry IV. Henry sought forgiveness at Canossa the following year, in 1077.
• The church also issued interdicts, which went beyond individuals to suspend the administration of the sacraments throughout an entire region.

During the Reformation, the following events took place:

• 1520: Pope Leo X, in the bull Exsurge Domine ("Arise, O Lord"), demanded that Martin Luther recant his positions. Luther burned the bull in December of that year.
• 1521: Luther was excommunicated.

The Reformers rejected the papal power of excommunication but retained church discipline itself, that is, the church's correction of its members' sins.

• John Calvin carried out discipline in Geneva, including suspension from Communion, through the Consistory, a body composed of pastors and elders.
• The Belgic Confession (1561) named church discipline as one of the marks of the true church.
• Chapter 30 of the Westminster Confession of Faith set out church censures in stages: admonition, suspension from the Lord's Supper, and excommunication.
• The Anabaptists, in the Schleitheim Confession of 1527, defined "the ban" as a means of preserving the holiness of the community. This tradition continues today in the Amish practice of social shunning.

Results and Influence

On December 7, 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I issued a joint declaration stating that the mutual excommunications of 1054 were to be removed from the memory of the church. Today, the canon law of the Catholic Church describes excommunication not as eternal condemnation but as a "medicinal penalty" intended to bring about repentance. It also provides that certain acts, such as apostasy and heresy, automatically incur excommunication without a separate sentence.

In Korean Protestantism, chulgyo is the most severe level of church discipline. Presbyterian churches impose censures through judicial procedures in the session, presbytery, and general assembly. The names and levels of censure vary by denomination and include rebuke, suspension from Communion, suspension from office, deposition from office, and expulsion. Heresy designation, which passes judgment on the doctrines of other groups, is a procedure distinct from the expulsion imposed on members or ministers of one's own denomination.

Assessment

Defenders of excommunication hold that its purpose is to preserve the holiness of the church and to lead the sinner to repentance and restoration. Critics point out that excommunication was abused as a political weapon in the Middle Ages. Some also observe that in Korean churches today expulsion has limited practical effect, because members can easily move to another church or denomination. Others criticize the use of expulsion as a means of driving out opponents in church disputes.