St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (Jun 2023)
Conciliarity of the Church
Abstract
Conciliarity is central to the identity of the Christian church. This article discusses the meaning of the word ‘conciliarity’ and its relation to ‘synodality’ through the lens of the church’s experience of councils (synods) at the local, regional, and universal levels. It offers ten scriptural ‘roots’ for the experience of councils and conciliarity in the church. It describes the church’s experience of councils and conciliarity in the pre-Nicene era, at the Council of Nicaea (325), and up to the rupture in communion between East and West (1054). There is a brief analysis, drawn from the church’s experience in the first millennium, of the conditions for the recognition of a council as ‘ecumenical’. The trajectory of the general councils of the Western church, convened by the Pope, is then followed through to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) highlighting debates around conciliarism and the contemporary Roman Catholic understanding of conciliarity. The article then turns to a discussion of councils and conciliarity as understood in Eastern Orthodoxy, the churches of the Reformation, and the Anglican Communion. A section on the World Council of Churches shows how ‘conciliar fellowship’ is central to its understanding of its own identity. A concluding section on ‘conciliarity, conversation and consensus’ returns to the model of the disciples on the road to Emmaus as central to an ecumenical understanding of the conciliarity of the church.
