Primacy in the Church from Vatican I to Vatican II by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
Published: 2013-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

Toward a Theology of Primacy: Justification of Primacy on Ecclesiological and Dogmatic Principles and Zizioulas’s Contribution

The Priority of the Theological over the Historical Method. Zizioulas has spoken of the necessity of universal primacy as an expression of the unity of the Church at the universal level: “Can there be unity of the Church without primacy on the local, the regional and the universal level in an ecclesiology of communion? We believe not. For it is through a ‘head,’ some kind of ‘primus,’ that the many, be it individual Christians or local Churches, can speak with one voice.”93

Let us consider how he develops his view on the issue of universal primacy. First, it must be noted that Zizioulas distinguishes two ways of approaching the issue of primacy in general: historical and theological. Zizioulas considers that the historical method, which has been used in the past extensively, “has led to no fruitful result.” In regard to the primacy of the bishop of Rome, Zizioulas considers that “biblical and Patristic evidence cannot decide the issue.”94

Although Zizioulas admits that “there is undoubtedly a petrine primacy in the college of the Twelve,” on the other hand, he considers it difficult to “establish on biblical grounds the link between the ministry of St. Peter and that of the bishop of Rome.”95 In a foundational address during a symposium on the petrine primacy in 2003, Zizioulas went on to explain that “although Peter’s position among the Twelve is recognized more and more also by the Orthodox, the particular importance attached to him by the Roman Catholics is strongly disputed by them.”96 He then pointed to the impasse caused by disagreement with regard to Peter’s position in the New Testament: “If we wait until biblical scholars come to an agreement on this issue, we may have to postpone the unity of the Church for another millennium if not infinitely.”97 In this context we earlier noted the examples of such a disagreement between the classical Roman Catholic view and the Greek Orthodox one on Peter’s position in the New Testament.98

Furthermore, Zizioulas says that Oscar Culmann’s point “that in fact the ministry of the Twelve is unique and unrepeatable continues to be valid as long as continuity is understood strictly in historical terms, i.e. as a matter of linear historical succession.”99 He doubts that the link between the petrine and the papal primacy can be based on the fact that Peter died and was buried in Rome; he considers that this fact “can hardly convince the historian that such a link can follow by logical necessity.”100

Zizioulas further contests the link by drawing upon the following facts, namely (1) “Paul also died in Rome and so did many other martyrs of the Church, but there has been no claim of their succession by the bishop of Rome,” (2) “as it is indicated by the controversy concerning the celebration of Easter in the second century, other churches in Asia Minor boasted for having hosted the tombs and relics of apostles in their

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