Excommunication
A depiction of Pope Gregory IX
excommunicating
Excommunication
is a religious censure
used to deprive or suspend membership in a
religious community. The word
literally
means putting [someone] out of communion.
In some religions, excommunication includes
spiritual condemnation of the member or
group. Censures and sanctions sometimes
follow excommunication; these include ban-
ishment, shunning, and shaming, depending
on the religion, the offense that caused ex-
communication, or the rules or norms of the
religious community.
Christianity
The Biblical basis of excommunication is ana-
thema. The references are found in Galatians
1:8 — “But even if we, or an angel from
Heaven, should preach to you a gospel con-
trary to what we have preached to you, he is
to be anathema!" Then also, 1 Corinthians
16:22 — "If anyone does not love the Lord, he
is to be anathema." The word can be trans-
lated several ways; the King James Version
translates it as accursed.
The New Testament contains limited ex-
amples of excommunication. Jesus, in Mat-
thew 18:17,
teaches
that
those who
repeatedly offend others should be treated as
"Gentiles or tax collectors." In the Epistle to
the Romans 16:17, Paul writes to "mark
those who cause divisions contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned and avoid
them", and in 1 Corinthians 5, he instructs
the Corinthians to expel an immoral member
of their community. Also, in 2nd John vv. 10
& 11, the writer advises believers that "who-
soever transgresseth, and abideth not in the
doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath
both the Father and the Son. If there come
any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, re-
ceive him not into your house [οικιαν, resid-
ence or abode, or "inmates of the house"
(family)], neither bid him God speed: for he
that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds".
Anathema was used in the early church as
a form of extreme religious sanction beyond
excommunication. The earliest recorded ex-
ample was in AD 306.