Where did the Term Catholic/Catholicism come from?

Question

Could you please give me the Insightful History?
Please No Bashing and Please No Scriptures.

Peace & Love,
Sam

To Wayne G - You Rock!
Thank you.

Answer 1

catholic means universal, of broad or liberal scope

they saw themselves as the universal church for everyone

Answer 2

The term "catholic" as stated by previous answers originates from ancient Greek and means "universal".

The earliest example of its use is by Ignatius, the third Patriarch (Pope) of Antioch in a Letter to the Smyrnaeans in about the year 107.
See: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Ignatius_of_Antioch

In no way did it imply the existence of a church in Rome, or the primacy of Rome over the other churches.

It was only later from the 5th century onwards that the Roman church chose to create a ficticious claim of being the first church- the fact that Ignatius was Pope of Antioch shows is patently false.

Answer 3

I orignates from the Greek katholikos, which means universal. The belief date back to the early church, which debated the issue of Gentiles and Jews. Since both were allowed to become Christians, the early church viewed itself as catholic. It is used in two of the earliest creeds of the chuch "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church [Apostle's Creed]" and "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. [Nicene Creed]"

One thing to note about both of these Creeds is that catholic is spelled with a small "c", The term Catholic with a capital "c" is the reference to a particular demination or believer of that domination such as Roman Catholic, or Byzantine Catholic.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

The Church has referred to itself as the “Catholic Church” at least since 107 AD (about 10 years after the last book of the New Testament was written), when the term appears in the Letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans:

"Wherever the bishop appear, there let the multitude be; even as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-smyrnaeans-hoole.html

We do not know how long they had been using the term "Catholic" before it was included in this letter.

All of this was long before the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed from 325 A.D. which states, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

It means Universal