Thursday, November 15, 2007

Wait a Tick ... Pope head of Orthodoxy too?

According to this article, Orthodoxy is willing to conceded that the pope is its head (link).

Oh, and for certain naive folks, the following quotation from the article should be enlightening:

"The meeting was marred at the start when delegates from the Russian Orthodox Church walked out over a territorial dispute with a rival Orthodox church."

Meanwhile, Reformation theology continues to deny that the pope is the head of Christianity, and to question whether the pope's profession of faith is credible.

-Turretinfan

6 comments:

orthodox said...

Ahh dear, sillyness abounds.

No, there is nothing new here. Orthodoxy acknowledges that the pope had primacy. Not that he was a "head". This means that at a meeting, council or service the Roman bishop would take first place. Nowdays the bishop of Constantinople has primacy since the pope is no longer Orthodox. And as anyone knows, the primacy of the bishop of Constantinople doesn't make him some kind of "pope" of Orthodoxy.

If you think it does, then you are acknowledging that the Pope was "head" of Christendom since at least, oh say the 2nd ecumenical council which declared Rome as having first place (primacy). That would be quite a concession for a protestant to make, that the papacy has existed since the 4th century.

Turretinfan said...

Orthodox:

I wonder whether you are referring to:

a) the silliness of Orthodoxy having ecumenical discussions with Catholicism;

b) the silliness of my using the English word "head" to describe the person having the "first place";

c) silliness in the article generally; or

d) silliness of Orthodoxy and Catholicism (especially the former) squabbling over territory?

-Turretinfan

John Warren said...

Hi Turretinfan. What with this rapproachment, and the seeming trend of RC apologists leaning toward a more Orthodox understanding of Tradition, I'm getting the impression that Ratzinger wants to Orthodoxify the Roman Catholic Church. Also, and I could be wrong, but I thought I read of Ratzinger referring to the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father.

Next thing you know they'll throw out Thomas Aquinas, with his Scholasticism, and bring in Symeon the New Theologian, with his mysticism.

Turretinfan said...

John, interesting way of looking at it!

-Turretinfan

orthodox said...

That would be (b).

Turretinfan said...

Ah - ok. I'll let readers decide for themselves whether the person in the first place among a group is rightly called its "head" and whether it is silly so to term the fellow, or whether it is more silly to complain about that, while pretending the fights of territory are a non-issue.

-Turretinfan