Church

CRITICAL: in the contemporary post-Christian West, ‘church’ increasingly carries negative or purely institutional connotations — declining attendance, high-profile clergy-abuse scandals, and a large and growing share of the population identifying as religiously unaffiliated (‘nones’) mean many readers’ primary association with ‘church’ is an institution in decline or under scrutiny, not Romans’ living, Spirit-indwelt people of God. ‘Going to church’ is also often understood as a passive cultural or family habit rather than active participation in Christ’s body. This curriculum must actively restore the doctrine’s relational, living, Spirit-filled sense rather than assume the English word still carries it for most readers.