EIN UMSTURZ IN DER EKKLESIOLOGIE DES 18. JAHRHUNDERTS, DER LATEINER UND GRIECHEN ZU ZWEI KONFESSIONEN MACHTE
AN UPHEAVAL IN THE ECCLESIOLOGY OF THE 18TH CENTURY, WHICH TURNED THE LATINS AND GREEKS INTO TWO DIFF ERENT CONFESSIONS ACCUSING EACH OTHER OF ERROR

Summary/Abstract: An upheaval in the ecclesiology of the 18th century, which turned the Latins and Greeks into two different confessions accusing each other of error in faith and naming themselves „Catholics” and „Orthodox” respectively. At the council of Ferrara – Florence (1438–9), the Western and Eastern Churches, although formally separated, mutually respected their ecclesiastic dignity, and accepted that the unity of the Church can exist through diversity of tradition. This perspective has changed in time, especially after the council of Trient (1545–63). By clarifying its dogma towards the Protestant theology, Catholicism onceived ecclesiastic unity as uniformity and considered – in strong opposition with the Florentine opinion – any community outside the Roman obedience as heretic or suspect of heresy. In the same period, the Greek Church under Ottoman rule reached a period of stability, after the difficulties of the time of Kyrillos Lukaris (1572–1638) and due to the decline of the Empire. It was the moment when she could revise her theology and the result was the conception that the Orthodox Church is the only keeper of the unaltered treasure of the Revelation. Those two positions are best reflected in two documents of the period: the 1729 decree of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and the synodal decision of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchy of 1755. These documents are based on the ecclesiology of the respective Churches and deny both the ecclesiality of the other and the capability of validly administrating the Sacraments. From these points of view, the possibility for each of the two great Christian Churches to assure the salvation of their members seems to be obliterated. Some of these difficulties are still to be overcome.

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