Authority in the Church

Image Credit: Christ Pantocrator in the church of Santa Pudenziana in Rome, 

Roman mosaic, c. 410 AD

Today is the last day of the Second Annual EDI Florovsky-Newman Week, held today at St. George's Orthodox Christian Cathedral. We have been meeting since Wednesday evening on the campus of Newman University and have been discussing this theme:

The Patristic View of Authority: Bible, Pope, or Conciliarity?

Co-sponsored by Eighth Day Institute and the Gerber Institute for Catholic Studies, the Florovsky-Newman Week promotes a “return to the sources for Christian unity.” Heeding Fr. Florovsky's advice, rather than simply overlooking differences, this conference seeks to overcome the different views of church authority. And we do so by returning to the common Tradition, by learning to read the Fathers as living masters, rather than as historical documents. Our hope is for you to deepen your understanding of the authority by which the Church grounds her faith and morals, examining authority from our respective traditions as Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Christians. Join us for this unique event as we dive into the Church Fathers in order to explore, challenge, and encourage one another to better love God and neighbor.

On Thursday and Friday mornings, we had academic papers on various topics about authority in East and West. I presented one on Newman and Papal Infallibility At least two students at Newman who are also in seminary training for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita gave papers, and we heard from Lutheran and Orthodox presenters--even a Mormon (the discussion of the Great Apostasy, though necessarily brief, was fascinating and disconcerting)! In the evenings, the plenary speakers, Lutheran and Catholic, presented their papers, and their counterparts responded to them--today the Orthodox speaker will make his presentation.

It has been a great short week or long weekend of presentations, conversations, lunch, fellowship and shopping at Eighth Day Books! More on this event again.

Apologetics: Tradition at the Spiritual Life Center

At the Spiritual Life Center of the Diocese of Wichita on Tuesday, August 22 at 7:00 p.m.: 

Apologia: The Merit of Tradition
Defending the Faith in the 21st Century
Stephanie A. Mann

Apologizing isn’t saying “I’m Sorry.”

apologia or ἀπολογία (Greek): a speech in defense

An apology, in the classical sense, is a reasoned defense of the faith.

Join Dusty Gates, M.A., and guest presenters for these sessions of apologetic dialogue. Each session will address a different topic, pertinent to 21st century Catholics, which we have the need and obligation to be able to defend and explain: firstly for ourselves, secondly to our families and religious brethren, and thirdly to the greater public who may inquire of us; either as seekers of the faith, or as its attackers.

Protestants and Catholics alike often ask, "Where is that Catholic Church teaching in the Bible?" Thus, even Catholics are influenced by one of the basic tenets of the Protestant Reformation: sola scriptura, citing the Holy Bible as the only source of authority in Christianity. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that there are two sources of authority in the Church: the Tradition of the Church and the Holy Bible, formed and canonized by that Tradition. This month's Apologia at the Spiritual Life Center, presented by Stephanie A. Mann, will explore this teaching and look at how even Protestants have Tradition in their communities' authority for being a Christian.

$10 admission: online, by phone, or at the door. 7pm-8:30pm.

Each session features a one hour presentation on one topic, followed by 15-30 minutes for Q/A and discussion of this topic, and/or any topic pertaining to apologetics.

Seems natural that someone interested in Church History would be interested in Tradition! In preparation for this presentation next month, I've been reading Yves Congar's The Meaning of Tradition. Congar, a Dominican and periti at the Second Vatican Council, wrote two longer works on Tradition: La Tradition et les traditions: essai historique and La Tradition et les traditions: essai théologique, combined in the English translation as Tradition and Traditions: An historical and a theological essay. Ignatius Press provides an excerpt from The Meaning of Tradition, the introduction, here.