Ecumenical Council

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Ecumenical councils (from the Greek Oikumene , “whole inhabited earth”; and the Latin concilium , “joint consultation”) are gatherings at which those responsible from the Christian Church around the world come together to discuss and jointly decide on significant, disputed issues. That is why ecumenical councils also lay claim to the global validity of their decisions . In the history of the first millennium, the concept of Oikumene is virtually identical to Europe , the Middle East and North Africa , where their decisions as binding doctrinal norm rezipiert were.

The biblical model for the ecumenical councils, as for all councils, is the apostolic council , at which the most important representatives of Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians met in Jerusalem in 49 or 50 to decide on the degree of obligation of various Jewish laws for all Christians.

Historically, the term does not designate a common council of different denominations in the sense of the ecumenical movement .

Councils of the Ancient Church

The ecumenical councils of the early church are seven general meetings of bishops, which took place from 325 to 787 and are today recognized by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox and Protestant churches . Later councils, including those sent together, did not, for internal and external reasons, achieve the same unanimity in recognition.

The Apostolic Church of the East only recognizes the first two, the ancient oriental churches only the first three councils as ecumenical (and thus binding). In Protestantism, the reception of the Second Nicene is partly controversial.

Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church

In Catholic church historiography, since Bellarmin's Disputationes de controversiis (1586), after the seven councils of the Old Church (until 787), 14 further synods are considered "ecumenical councils" despite the absence of representatives of the Eastern Church . However, their ecumenism is generally not recognized by other Christian churches.

According to the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church, councils are assemblies in the Holy Spirit and are celebrated as liturgical celebrations. According to current church law ( Codex Iuris Canonici , Canones 222–229), the bishops who take a decision together with the Pope in the context of an ecumenical council have the highest teaching authority in the church and are infallible in this decision . This claim to infallibility should not be confused with the much more recent doctrine of papal infallibility in questions of religious and moral doctrine, as it was proclaimed in the context of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870).

Ecumenical Councils in the Orthodox Churches

The Orthodox Churches, on the other hand, were aware of the actual Oikumene term and, in the absence of the Western Church, refrained from calling a council ecumenical, even though in the 2nd millennium there were some pan-orthodox councils of all Orthodox churches (accessible in the respective situation). The most important council of this kind was the Council of Jerusalem of 1672 . The Pan-Orthodox Council from June 19 to 26, 2016 discussed a draft, according to which the Photianic Council (879-880), “in which the insertion of the ' Filioque ' - the confession of the exit of the Holy Spirit also from the Son - through the Latin Church was condemned, the councils of the 14th century in Constantinople (which dealt with difficult theological questions in contrast to the scholastic theology of the West), the Council of Iasi of 1642 (which rejected Catholic and Protestant theological models of thought) and the Council of Jerusalem 1672 (with its condemnation of Calvinism and the 'Filioque') are to be recognized as 'Holy and Great Councils'. ”However, this council only became independent (“ autocephalous ”) from ten (of fourteen) due to various points of contention. Visited churches.

See also

literature

  • Christian Lange: Introduction to the general councils . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-534-25059-2 .
  • Hermann Josef Sieben: Ecumenical Councils . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 7 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, Sp. 1029 .
  • M. Sohn-Kronthaler: Article Council. In: E. Biser et al. (Editor): The Faith of Christians. An ecumenical dictionary. Pattloch, Munich 1999, page 273 f.
  • K. Rahner, H. Vorgrimler: Small Council Compendium. All texts of the Second Vatican Council with introductions and a detailed subject index. Herder, Freiburg et al. 1991, page 152 ff.
  • Carl Andresen et al. (Ed.): Handbook of the history of dogmas and theology. 2nd Edition. UTB, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 978-3-8252-8039-0 .
  • Karlmann Beyschlag: Outline of the history of dogmas, vol. 1: God and the world. 2nd Edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1988.
  • Karlmann Beyschlag: Outline of the history of dogmas, Vol. 2: God and man. Part 1: The Christological Dogma. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1991.
  • The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church. Their Canons and Dogmatic Decrees […], trans. by Henry Percival (A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church 2nd ser. 14), Oxford / New York 1971 [ digitized version ]
  • Dietmar W. Winkler , On the reception of 'Ecumenical Councils' using the example of the Persian and Armenian Churches , in: Christian Hornung , Andreas Merkt , Andreas Weckwerth (eds.), Bishops between autarky and collegiality. Variations of a Tension Relationship , Quaestiones disputatae 301, Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2019, 129–157.

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ Dietmar W. Winkler , On the reception of 'Ecumenical Councils' using the example of the Persian and Armenian Church , in: Christian Hornung , Andreas Merkt , Andreas Weckwerth (ed.), Bishops between autarky and collegiality. Variations of a Tension Relationship , Quaestiones disputatae 301, Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2019, 129–157.
  2. ↑ Second Vatican Council: Constitution Lumen Gentium , paragraph 25
  3. ^ Orthodox council deliberates on the autonomy of churches . KAP article on kath.net , June 23, 2016.
  4. ^ Article by Domradio Köln from June 20, 2016
  5. ↑ Fr. Cyril Hovorun: The Fragile Promise of the Pan-Orthodox Council . Catholic World Report, March 14, 2014