National church

A Christian church organized around a nation’s identity or territory, often autonomous from foreign religious authority and sometimes established by the state.

English Reformation: The sixteenth-century process that separated the Church of England from papal authority and reshaped English Christianity. Its royal break with Rome established a lasting model of national ecclesiastical independence.
Erastianism: The doctrine that the state has authority over the church in ecclesiastical matters. It explains the strongest form of state control within an established national church.
Roman Catholic Church: The worldwide Christian church led by the pope, with dioceses and members across national borders. Its centralized universal authority contrasts with churches organized around national jurisdictions.
Religious nationalism: A political ideology that links national identity and legitimacy to a particular religious tradition. National churches can give religious institutions a central role in defining the nation.
Reformation: A sixteenth-century movement that divided Western Christianity and created Protestant churches across Europe. It supplied the theological and political upheaval from which many national churches arose.
Established church: A church officially recognized or supported by a state, often with legal privileges or public duties. National churches may hold this status, though national identity does not require establishment.
Eastern Orthodox Church: A communion of self-governing Orthodox churches sharing theology, liturgy, and sacramental life. Its national autocephalous churches resemble national churches but belong to a wider communion.
Church and state: The relationship between religious institutions and political authority within a society. National churches are a major institutional form through which this relationship takes shape.
Peace of Augsburg: The 1555 agreement that let rulers in the Holy Roman Empire choose Catholicism or Lutheranism for their territories. It made territorial rule over religious affiliation an explicit political settlement.
Autocephaly: The self-governing status of a church whose highest authority is not subordinate to another church. It names the institutional independence many national churches seek from foreign ecclesiastical authority.

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Synod of BishopsRelated: A synod’s scope may be national, unlike assemblies spanning multiple countries.