The union of the churches is one of the crucial issues of our time. Yet it is often forgotten that any discussion about it must begin with an understanding of what the Church itself is.
The Church - The Episcopate - The Conciliar Structure - Two Rival Ecclesiologies - The Papacy - Perspectives and Formulas of Schism - The Christology of Schism - Trinitarian Doctrine and the Schism.
In this powerful critique of Roman Catholic ecclesiology as diverging from the patristic vision of the Church, Philip Sherrard restores ecclesiology as an integral part of Christology. Thus, the question of the papacy is bracketed as merely a symptom of a deeper Christological rift between East and West. Sherrard sees a tendency in the West (despite Pope Leo's Tome at Chalcedon) toward a Nestorian separation of the divine and human natures in Christ, and an analogous separation of the divine and human aspects of the Church, an emphasis on the Church in heaven and the Church on earth as discrete realities. A human society must be governed, naturally taking the form of a monarchy along imperial Roman lines, ultimately the fully developed Western papacy. Sherrard contrasts this with what he sees as the authentic patristic view of the Church, as a reality in which the divine and human are inseparable, in which Christ reveals Himself fully in the Eucharist of all validly ordained bishops, consequently excluding a juridical conception of authority in the Church. In this rich study of Orthodox ecclesiology, those who long for the healing of schism, be they Roman Catholic or Orthodox, will find an articulation of the issues that lie between them, going well beyond externals.
In this powerful critique of Roman Catholic ecclesiology as diverging from the patristic vision of the Church, Philip Sherrard restores ecclesiology as an integral part of Christology. Thus, the question of the papacy is bracketed as merely a symptom of a deeper Christological rift between East and West. Sherrard sees a tendency in the West (despite Pope Leo's Tome at Chalcedon) toward a Nestorian separation of the divine and human natures in Christ, and an analogous separation of the divine and human aspects of the Church, an emphasis on the Church in heaven and the Church on earth as discrete realities. A human society must be governed, naturally taking the form of a monarchy along imperial Roman lines, ultimately the fully developed Western papacy. Sherrard contrasts this with what he sees as the authentic patristic view of the Church, as a reality in which the divine and human are inseparable, in which Christ reveals Himself fully in the Eucharist of all validly ordained bishops, consequently excluding a juridical conception of authority in the Church. In this rich study of Orthodox ecclesiology, those who long for the healing of schism, be they Roman Catholic or Orthodox, will find an articulation of the issues that lie between them, going well beyond externals.
Be the first to write a review
Click on image to enlarge
