What is the Church and what is its mission today? Church History response

According to church history, "the Church" is the result of the tradition that began with the Catholic Church that was formed at the time of Constantine.  Before then, Christians worshipped in synagogues and in house assemblies.  At about the time of the author of Matthew (85-95 C.E.), the Christian community was separating from the Jewish community and it appears that they then began building their own synagogues (Matt. 12 mentions “their synagogue” and Matt. 23 talks to the Pharisees about “your synagogue”).  At the time of the Christianization of Rome, the power of the empire was used to enforce consistency across the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and I believe that this is when the Western or more modern idea of “the Church” came into being.

Thus, the Church was defined as the Catholic Church in Roman times.  It split into  Eastern and Western forms after the death of Constantine, when the empire was politically divided between his sons.  For some time, the Eastern and Western forms of Catholicism drifted apart, over differences in theology and in how the “Pope” (Bishop of the capitol city) related to the Emperor.  In the East, the imperial leaders maintained control over church leaders, and the Eastern empire continued several centuries beyond that of Rome.  In the West, Rome was sacked in 410, and a power vacuum resulted into which the Roman Pope moved, taking control of state and church himself.  

Western medieval Christianity then proceeded through various controversies (for example, Arianism is a heresy, and then, oops, Arianism is orthodoxy now that we have a new Pope).  Since the Pope had state military forces under his control, enforcement of doctrine became militarized.  This was unfortunate, in my opinion, and was not reversed until the Reformation allowed the formation of the first alternative church in Germany.  This led to further schisms and proliferations of church bodies which continues today.

I have to admit that I do not know what the mission of “the Church” is in our times.  It appears to me that the various flavors of Christianity compete for attention, influence, and power, in a continuing argument over empire, as if the Roman dream were still with us.  Thus, missionary work continues in ambivalently imperial mode to this day, though postcolonials are beginning to make their voices heard.

It was not until the American Revolution that Western minds could conceive a separation between religion and state.     This separation is still being contested today.  Though I believe that the days of theocracy are finally over, until churches fully assimilate the idea and practice of diversity they will not be capable of emotionally embracing it.  That is maybe the task (mission) for modern churches, though they themselves may or may not see it this way: learn to see the Other as neighbor and learn what love actually requires.