There seems to be a common mistake made in differentiating between Catholicism and Orthodoxy as far as doctrine. It’s often stated that “Catholicism and Orthodoxy differ on a few doctrines,” which I think is an insufficient description.
All doctrines in Orthodoxy Catholicism accepts. Since the Great Schism, the Eastern Orthodox Church has held no ecumenical councils, while the Catholic Church has plowed on addressing the issues of the day and engaging culture. So, all ecumenical councils before the Great Schism the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are agreed on; the difference is that the Orthodox Church doesn’t believe that any ecumenical councils have been held.
The difference then lies in that Catholicism has developed its doctrines for the last 1000 years, whereas the Orthodox has effectively not. The Catholic Church has more doctrines than the Orthodox Church, such as the filioque, papal infallibility, and even counter-intuitively, the canon of Scripture.
So, if there is to be a reunion of the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches (I fear it would not be the entirety of Orthodoxy at one time, but, like we see now, separate Churches), there cannot be any compromise per se; one Church will have been right whereas the other will have been wrong. The solutions thus are;
1) The Catholic Church has always been right (and the Orthodox Church accepts the doctrines developed since the Great Schism)
2) The Orthodox Church has always been right (and the Catholic Church abandons any doctrines developed since the Great Schism)
Of course, there seems to be a midway between (1) and (2), but only if (2) is first true, such that;
2′) The Orthodox Church has always been right, but the Orthodox Church would retro-define some of the same doctrines developed in the Catholic Church since the Great Schism
(2′) actually seems quite likely, since I’d think it most probably that the Orthodox Church would accept just about all doctrinal developments as expressed in the councils excluding the First Vatican Council (which defined papal infallibility). At the very least, it would seem certain that the Orthodox Church would accept the same canon of Scripture.
Now, my own theory of how a reunion could be affected would be to say this;
3) Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have been right; the Catholic Church will maintain the doctrines as she has, and the Orthodox Churches will ratify all new doctrines of the Catholic Church since the Great Schism
(3) would be possible under the possibly radical theses that both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches have infallibility; we see the Catholic Church expressing this positively, whereas the Orthodox Church has expressed it by not defining any doctrines in contradiction to the Catholic Church. It amounts to saying that the sundering of formal unity was mistake, and formal unity can be continued after doctrinal unity has been asserted by the Orthodox Churches (because it is in their valid authority [the same kind of authority present in the Catholic Church] to do so).
A Catch-22 results in the case of those Eastern Orthodox who reject a reunion in which (3) happens, meaning that those who didn’t enter into communion with the Catholic-Orthodox Church were those who have rejected the authority of the Church, while those who did enter into communion with the Catholic-Orthodox Church are those who are within the authority of the Church.
This sort of solution to the problem of the Great Schism would be saying that Catholics would now say they are both Catholic and Orthodox, and Orthodox would say they are both Orthodox and Catholic. One Church isn’t being subsumed into the other, dissolved to “make room” for the other to have total authority. Both Churches would be exercising authority, together. This reflects the notion of that the Catholic and Orthodox Church are both complementary lungs of the same body. “Europe has two lungs, it will never breathe easily until it uses both of them” (Pope John Paul II)
hey Bryce, i got ur PM and will post a response here when i get home (im typing this from my cell… not easy haha). You make some great points (as usual). My short answer: I think the main cause of the disunity between the EOC and the RCC are not so much rooted in doctrine, because as you said, we are not all that different doctrine-wise, but in Papal authority. Ok. Thumbs hurt. Ill post a more detailed response later. -James (aka POG)
Bryce,
Interesting points. Indeed, the authority of Rome is a key issue. In my graduate schooling we studied a great deal of the early letters and edicts sent out from Rome to the other churches in the Mediterranean world. Some accepted Rome’s self assertion (you can tell a Protestant is writing this post!) and others rejected it arguing that all the bishops had equal authority, there was nothing inherently special or holy about Rome’s bishop.
As for actuality, are there talks of unification going on right now? Theory aside, where are the Orthodox and Catholics in discussion/cooperation?
REV
Between existing Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church, for the last 50 years there has been increased ecumenism and solidarity, and the language used has been termed “speaking in love.” However, it is said that before real conclusions are made, the Church leaders are going to have to “speak in truth,” which has not been reached yet.
There have been some Eastern Orthodox Churches that have come into communion with Rome, such as the Chalcedonian Catholic Church, or the Syro-Malabarian.
As for those early Christian who disagreed with Rome’s authority, I think its worth noting that it was not uncommon for, say, a Syrian bishop to tout Rome as “errorless in maintaining the Tradition” when Rome was in agreement (and the Syrian was writing to an Alexandrian bishop), but then turn back around and maintain that Rome was just one bishopric amongst others when Rome disagreed with them (but Rome agreed with the Alexandrian).
Indeed! Fun how those bishops would duke out the issues.
And as for contemporary stuff – thanks, I didn’t know all that.
REV
[…] time ago, my (online) friend Bryce Laliberte, now of Anarcho-Papist, wrote an interesting piece on his old blog, Amtheomusings, about the possibility of reunion between the Roman Catholic Church […]