Title: <i>Ius Divinum</i> as an Ecumenical Problem
Abstract: N ALL differences in church order are so grave as to be churchdividing. Within a single ecclesiastical communion there is room for many variations in the forms of church government, ministry, and worship. Even where the disagreements are serious, they are negotiable when the decision depends on the discretionary power of human authorities. But when the differences are believed to involve what God Himself requires of His Church, compromise becomes difficult. Each party takes the position that the other is simply in error and must be converted before reconciliation is possible. The divergences among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calviniste at the time of the Reformation rested, in great part, upon incompatible views as to what God had irrevocably entrusted to His Church for safekeeping and transmission. The Protestant Reformers believed that the desacralization or elimination of certain offices and rites cherished Catholics was permitted or even demanded fidelity to the Scriptures. Catholics, on the other hand, were convinced that these very changes were in violation of God's law for the Thus the Protestant-Catholic cleavage, and to a lesser extent the cleavages among Protestant groups, were due to discrepancies regarding what was of right, law, institution, or ordination—terms which, although not synonymous, may be used almost interchangeably for the purposes of this essay. The Roman Catholic position on what is of has been authoritatively set forth the last three ecumenical councils. The Council of Trent spoke of the seven sacraments and of the hierarchical ministry with its distinct grades. The First Vatican Council solemnly defined the pope's primacy of jurisdiction. The Second Vatican Council added that by divine institution bishops have succeeded to the place of the apostles as shepherds of the Church. The bilateral conversations among Catholics, Protestants, and Anglicans since Vatican II have on numerous occasions adverted to the problem of ius divinum. Three examples may be adduced. First, the international Lutheran/Catholic Dialogue, in its Malta Statement (1971), affirmed that greater emphasis on the historicity of the church in conjunction with a new understanding of its eschatological nature requires that in our day the concepts of ius divinum and ius humanum
Publication Year: 1977
Publication Date: 1977-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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