Primacy in the Ancient Church (from the 2nd to the mid-5th century): a study in typology
Abstract
The question of the realisation of primacy in the ancient Church has been mainly studied from the point of view of the ecclesiological and politico-ecclesiastical foundations of this phenomenon. In this paper, the author approaches the problem of primacy from a different point of view and focuses on its functional content. In the author’s interpretation, primacy is an important instrument for the conversion of the diachronic unity of the Church, that is to say, of the permanent identity between the historical Church and the primitive apostolic community, into synchronic unity, realised in the communion of the members of the Church, with one another, and with Christ. The analysis of the patristic and conciliar texts of the Early Christian period gives us the possibility to distinguish fi ve functions of the ecclesiastical primacy with their own limits of implementation and theological justifi cation: 1. sacramental and pastoral ministry in the local Church; 2. preservation and diff usion of the apostolic tradition; 3. demarcation of the Catholic Church from the schismatic communities; 4. regional episcopal consolidation; 5. universal solicitude (integral function). Although the Byzantine ecclesiological tradition did not accept the Roman monocentric model, the idea of universal solicitude is developed within the framework of the pentarchic model of the Church. This research as a whole shows that the idea of apostolicity was not the only one of the possible ideological justifi cations for the primacy. It was its necessary foundation, because the synchronic unity of the Church is unthinkable without diachronic one. This conclusion encourages to pay particular attention to apostolicity in contemporary ecclesiological discussions.
Keywords
