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More about Was the Church Too
Democratic?
Norman Tanner SJ
The book is the text of the
Bishop Thaliath Lectures given by the author at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram,
Bangalore, India, in August 2003. The general theme is
representation and participation in the Church. Christianity should always
challenge a culture as well as being challenged by it. The Catholic church
today, however, may be in danger of an excessive counter-culturalism in
terms of both church structures and theology. These issues, and others, are
examined through the lens of the twenty-one ecumenical and general councils
from Nicaea I in 325 to Vatican II in 1962-5.
The first two lectures look at councils and collegiality
in the ecumenical and regional councils of the early Church: the third and
fourth take the story through the Middle Ages, Trent and the two Vatican
councils. The last two lectures broaden into some reflections on
ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, and the future.
From the
Conclusion
My final reflection partly summarises points already made. It is that a more conciliar approach surely represents the best way forward for ecumenism. The
decree from the second council of Constantinople, just cited, makes the point
clearly. The Orthodox Church and the non-Chalcedonian (Oriental Orthodox)
churches, as well as the churches of the Reformation, all use conciliar
(synodical) forms of government and councils were fundamental to church order
in the first millennium of Christianity. Any form of reunion that is likely
to be acceptable to these churches will require the Catholic church to return
to a more conciliar form of government.
The Catholic church's long-standing suspicion of
conciliarism was mentioned in the third of these reflections, also how
damaging and unnecessary is this suspicion. The Catholic church can learn
from other churches regarding the conciliar dimension of church government but
it also has much to contribute to the debate inasmuch as it has preserved
better than other churches many other aspects of church order ; the papacy is
but one example; which are important complements and balances to councils.
Despite this suspicion of councils, moreover, the Catholic church has in fact
held exceptionally effective councils -- Trent and Vatican II are obvious
examples; and so has good experience of them to offer to others.
Even within the Catholic church, conciliarism offers a
helpful way forward. Recently, encouraged by the pope's encyclical Ut unum sint, there
has been considerable discussion of reform of the Catholic church's
structures of government. Too much focus and hope, in my opinion, has been
upon reform of the papacy and of the Roman Curia. It is notoriously
difficult for any institutions to reform themselves, so that waiting for
these reforms may be waiting too long. The councils, on the other hand,
offer another way forward, one that has its origins at the centre of the
Church;s tradition and whose orthodoxy is therefore guaranteed and yet is
also acceptable to other christian churches.
This way forward, too, offers many possibilities for
future
developments. Flexibility of arrangements in the councils of the past make
this same quality possible in the future. In terms of place, as mentioned,
the first eight ecumenical councils were held in modern Turkey, half of them
in Asia. Future ecumenical councils, therefore, could return to Asia or be
held in Africa or America: Bangalore or Kinshasa or New York? In terms of
organisation, the first eight councils were summoned by the emperors or
empresses of the day, presided over by them directly or through their
officials, and their decrees were promulgated by them. So the laity,
including women, may play a greater role in ecumenical councils to come.
Indeed, Constantine, emperor at the time of Nicaea I, was not a Christian,
strictly speaking, at least according to our modern criteria, inasmuch as he
had not yet been baptised. So, maybe influences and individuals from outside
the visible Church will return to play a fuller role in the councils of the
future? In many ways the councils show how inventive the Church can be in
its arrangements.
In government, indeed, the councils have usually been
ahead of their
time. The early councils, especially, offered a model to secular government
and society: they were more open and more democratic than their counterparts
in secular life. Then, indeed, the Church as a whole, in which the councils
played an integral part, was a leader in society. It seems to have offered
more opportunities to women or to slaves, for example, than they were
afforded by secular society. This is a tradition of which Christians, and
Catholics, can be proud. Now, on the contrary, the Catholic Church is in
danger of lagging behind. It is placing excessive emphasis on the government
of the Church being different from that of secular society; that it has its
own hierarchical forms of government that have nothing to do with secular
democracy; and on the need for the Church to be counter-cultural. Earlier
the Church had less fear of other institutions. It was readier to adopt for
itself the good elements in them, to use and then to improve upon them, to
give a lead in society rather than to follow reluctantly or to distance
itself unnecessarily. We saw a revival of this leadership in government, on
the part of the Church, at the time of Vatican II, but the momentum does not
seem to have been maintained. The councils open people's eyes to hopeful
possibilities for the future.
To end, let me disown any wish to urge the calling soon
of another
ecumenical council and any ability to prophecy when the next one will take
place. My feeling is that Vatican II needs more years of assimilation.
Another council too soon could produce rushed and divisive results; rather
as Ephesus II did, the Robber; council back in 449. There is nothing
surprising about this need of ;reception; major councils such as Nicaea
I,
Chalcedon and Trent all took at least a century for the Church to digest.
Councils depend above all upon the inspiration of the holy Spirit, so they
often occur at times and in ways that are unexpected to us: God's ways are
not ours, the holy Spirit is full of surprises. No more so was this the case
than with Vatican II, which nobody except Pope John XXIII seems to have
expected.
The point of this ninth and last reflection is rather
to urge the
importance of conciliarism within the Church at lower levels. Synod, the
equivalent of council, is an evocative word formed from two Greek words
meaning 'together' and 'journey'. The sense is of travelling
companions, people meeting for a purpose, with an unknown journey before
them, in hope and expectation. A beautiful image of the pilgrim church and a
hopeful omen for the people of God as Christianity enters its third
millennium.
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