In the Age of the Post-Ecclesiality (The Emergence of Post-Ecclesiological Modernity)

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Abstract:

The second Millennium opens a new period in History and the Theology of the Church and Christianity. A period which could literally be characterised as „post-ecclesiological” for reasons, which are analysed concretely during the present lecture. The beginning of this period could, indicatively, be dated back to the time of the Reform (1517), though, of course, many precursory signs had already appeared much earlier, especially in the Ecclesiology formed at the time of the Crusades (1095-1204). In other words, after one observed ecclesiological deviation and its introduction into the ecclesial life, de facto, it was natural for various new Ecclesiologies to emerge, such as confessional Ecclesiologies (Protestants), ritualistic Ecclesiologies (Catholics), and ethno-phyletic Ecclesiologies (Orthodox Christians), or better yet, to respect the order of their historical appearance, ritualistic (1099), confessional (1517) and ethno-phyletic (1872) Ecclesiologies. Indeed, in the course of the second Christian Millennium, the three major Christian traditions — Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — have come to distance themselves from the territorial principle of Ecclesiology, according to which the Church must be one „in each place”. From the time of the Crusades (1095-1204), the Roman Catholic Church began to establish Latin Patriarchates parallel to the pre-existing Oriental Territorial ones and to create the Ecclesiological problem of co-territoriality (1099). Gradually, and especially since the introduction of „Uniatism” (1596), Roman Catholic Ecclesiology came to allow Churches of different ritual traditions to exist within a single territory; this is the birth of Roman Catholic Ecclesiological problem of Ritualism. This anti-ecclesiological and anti-canonical conviventia creates a new epoch for the Church, an epoch which is obviously post-ecclesial. Therefore, Protestantism, emphasizing the „confession of the faith” which created the Ecclesiological problem of Confessionalism (1517), as the foundation of the Church, came to admit the co-existence (co-territoriality, conviventia) in a single place of Churches of different confessions. As for Orthodoxy, it did not consider the interruption of communion with the Western Church (1054) as a full schism, and did not, therefore, attempt to create anything resembling a parallel „Orthodox Patriarchate of Rome”. But from the 19th century, the emigration of Orthodox Christians to regions outside thetraditional territory of their respective Territorial Churches, together with the growth of Ethno-phyletism (1872), led to the creation of multiple Orthodox bishoprics ( co-territoriality, conviventia), based exclusively on ethnic criteria (multi-jurisdiction), in full communion with each other; this is the Ecclesiological problem of Ethno-phyletism. National Orthodox Churches sometimes go so far as to claim a kind of extra-territoriality to enable them to minister to their compatriots abroad. (This situation, by extension, creates the contemporary Orthodox Ecclesio-canonical problem of „Diaspora”). The present text makes a research on the ecclesio-canonical problem of co-territoriality and multiple conviventia through the three major Christian Ecclesiologies of the second Christian Millennium. Today, being in a historico- theological position to distance ourselves from the facts of the historical and ecclesiological past and to re-examine the causes which provoked these ecclesiological deviations, we propose to directly analyse, in a purely dialectic and critical mindset and without any polemic temptation, these three Ecclesiologies which, so different in their origin and their perspective yet having a common denominator, are alike, contiguous and coexisting, albeit without any communion or identification between them. This common denominator goes by the name co-territoriality, a grave ecclesiological problem recorded during the whole second Millennium, the same millennium which was confronted with numerous unsolvable issues of exclusively Ecclesiological nature. These three Ecclesiologies are the following: 1. The Ecclesiology of the Crusades (13th century). 2. The Ecclesiology of the Reform (16th century). 3. The Ecclesiology of Ethno-Phyletism (19th century). In a few words, this article proposes, through the historical and ecclesiological past, to re-examine the causes, which provoked ecclesiological deviations within the Church. After one observed ecclesiological deviation and its introduction into the ecclesial life, de facto, it was natural for various new Ecclesiologies to emerge, such as Ritualistic Ecclesiologies (Roman Catholics), Confessional Ecclesiologies (Protestants), and Ethno-phyletic Ecclesiologies (Orthodox Christians). The emergence of these Ecclesiologies is analysed concretely during the article. While Roman Catholics have never distanced themselves from their „Ritualistic” Ecclesiology, nor Protestants from their anti-ecclesiological „Confessionalism”, the Orthodox did formally and synodally condemn „Ethno-phyletism” as Ecclesiological Heresy in the Pan-orthodox Council of Constantinople in 1872. For that very reason, the survival of ethno-phyletist tendencies in Orthodox Church practice is all the more reprehensible. The only way forward for all three confessional families is to return to the sound principle of Pauline Ecclesiology in the quest for unity in each place. The aim of this topic is to analyse the structural evolution of the Christian confessions from the end of the thirteenth century up to the endof the twentieth century. This analysis is circumscribed by the key events and ecclesiological changes that marked the history of Christendom at the macro-historical level. Focusing on these particular aspects we explain the circumstances which made the Christianity embark on a path that raised its self-awareness. The historical process of all these nine centuries ended with the establishment of the ritualistic, confessional and ethno-phyletic Churches in the perspective of the de facto confessional conviventia. It is a ‘natural’ option since in Ecclesiology, the geo-political geography is followed by a geo-ecclesiastical one (canon 17/IVth). Then again „the presence of two bishops in the same bishopric seat” (cf. canon 8/Ist), „the presence of two metropolitans in the same metropolitan region” (cf. canon 12/IVth) and „the presence of two Churches in the same ecclesiastical territory” (cf. canon 39/V-VIth), show the uncomfortable and totally non-canonical situation that started to perpetuate itself with the Crusades (1099), the Reformation (1517) and the Ethnophyletism (1872) in the Christian Oikumene. We live in a post-ecclesiological age due to our loss of sense of the „Local Church” belonging to a particular place and yet linked to the „Church through the Universe” (Canons 57/Carthage and 56/Quinisext). We can ascertain that the ways in which overlapping ‘co-territorial’ Churches define themselves by use of particular Rites (Roman Catholic), by Confessions of faith (Protestant), or, in the case of the Orthodox, by Ethnic origin. ‘Co-territoriality’ is the complete antithesis of the vision of Church held in the first Millennium and reflected in the Canons of the Church. Therefore, the cultural demands of peoples today in our multicultural society are more powerful than the ontological answers Churches provide. Churches will have to choose whether to conserve the Pauline Ecclesiology of the New Testament, which has guided them for fifteen centuries, or to give in to the confessional, ritualistic, cultural or nationalist demands of the post-ecclesiological age with the consequences of this choice… In this post-modern world of (religious) individualism and (ecclesiastical-ecumenical) relativism, only a witness of true unity and far away from one post-ecclesial conviventia can viably make the churches’ voices heard in the European and Universal public sphere.

Keywords:

сo-territoriality, Post-ecclesiality, Culturalistic Ecclesiology, Ecclesiastic Culturalism, Anti-ecclesio-canonical Conviventia, Ritualism, Confessionalism, Ethno-phyletism

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