Ecumenical council
In
Catholicism and
Eastern Orthodoxy, an
ecumenical council (Greek,
Oikumene/Οικυμενη, "World-wide" or "General") is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. "The whole church" is construed by Eastern Orthodoxy as including all Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in
full communion with each other. This does not include the Catholic Church since the Orthodox Church considers itself fully empowered to hold an Ecumenical Council without Rome's approval nor participation. Catholics, on the other hand, take the
whole church to mean only those in
full communion with the Catholic church. More local meetings are sometimes called "synods", but the distinction between a synod and a council is not hard and fast. However, both churches do recognize the validity of all of the early councils before the
Great Schism.
Council Documents
\nChurch councils were, from the beginning, bureaucratic exercises. Written documents were circulated, speeches made and responded to, votes taken, and final documents published and distributed. A large part of what we know about the beliefs of heresies comes from the documents quoted in councils in order to be refuted, or indeed only from the deductions based on the refutations. For all councils Canons (Greek kanones/κανονες, "rules" or "rulings") were published and survive. In some cases other documentation survives as well. Study of the canons of church councils is the foundation of the development of canon law, especially the reconciling of seemingly contradictory canons or the determination of priority between them. Canons consist of doctrinal statements and disciplinary measures -- most Church councils and local synods dealt with immediate disciplinary concerns as well as major difficulties of doctrine. Eastern Orthodoxy typically views the purely doctrinal canons as dogmatic and applicable to the entire church at all times, while the disciplinary canons are the application of those dogmas in a particular time and place; these canons may or may not be applicable in other situations.
Acceptance of the Councils
\nBoth the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize seven councils in the early years of the church, but Catholics also recognize fourteen councils called in later years by the Pope, whose authority the Eastern Orthodox utterly repudiate as they consider Rome to currently be in schism. The status of these councils in the face of a Catholic-Orthodox reconciliation would depend upon whether one accepts Roman Catholic ecclesiology (papal supremacy) or Orthodox ecclesiology (collegiality of autocephalous churches). In the former case, the additional councils would be granted the status of Ecumenical. In the latter case, they would be considered to be local synodical decisions with no authority among the other autocephalous churches.
As far as the Eastern Orthodox are concerned, since the seventh ecumenical council, there has been no synod or council of the same scope as any of the Ecumenical councils. Local meetings of hierarchs have been called "Pan-Orthodox", but these have invariably been simply meetings of local Hierarchs of whatever Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions are party to a specific local matter. There has been no fully "pan-Orthodox" (Ecumenical) council since 787CE. Unfortunately, the use of the term "Pan-Orthodox" is confusing to those not within Eastern Orthodoxy, and it leads to mistaken impressions that these are ersatz ecumenical councils rather than purely local councils to which nearby Orthodox hierarchs, regardless of jurisdiction, are invited.
Many Protestants (especially those belonging to the magisterial traditions, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism) accept the teachings of the first seven councils, but do not ascribe to the councils themselves the same authority as Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox do.
The Oriental Orthodox only accept the teachings of some of the councils: the Assyrian Church of the East only accept the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople, while the Oriental Orthodox Communion only accept Nicaea I, Constantinople I and the Council of Ephesus.
The first seven councils were called by the emperor (first the Christian Roman Emperors and later the Byzantine Emperors). Most historians agree that the emperors called the councils to force the Christian bishops to resolve divisive issues and reach consensus. They hoped that maintaining unity in the Church would help maintain unity in the Empire. The relationship of the Papacy to the validity of these councils is the ground of much controversy between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Churches and to historians.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects the early ecumenical councils for what they see as misguided human attempts without divine assistance to decide matters of doctrine as if doctrine were handed down by democratic debate or politics rather than revelation. That such councils were even considered is evidence enough to them that the original Christian church had fallen into apostasy and was no longer directly led by divine authority. They see the calling of such councils, for example, by an unbaptized (let alone unordained) Roman Emperor as preposterous and that the emperors used the councils to exercise their influence to shape and institute Christianity to their liking.
Some Protestants especially among independent fundamentalist churches, condemn the ecumenical councils for their own reasons. Independency, or congregationalism, among Protestants, involves the rejection of any governmental structure or binding authority above local congregations and therefore conformity to the decisions of these councils is considered purely voluntary, and binding only insofar as those doctrines are derived from the Scriptures. Along with this, they reject the idea that anyone other than the authors of Scripture can directly lead other Christians by original divine authority; after the New Testament, the doors of revelation are closed. New doctrines, not derived from the sealed canon of Scripture, are impossible and unnecessary, whether proposed by church councils or by more recent prophets. This argument is often proposed by anti-Trinitarian churches. The conciliar response is that the councils did not create new doctrines but merely elucidated doctrines already in Scripture that had been misinterpreted by a heretic or heretics.
List of councils:
\nCouncils called by Emperors and accepted by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Communion and Assyrian Churches as Ecumenical\n*First Council of Nicaea, (325); repudiated Arianism, adopted the Nicene Creed.\n*First Council of Constantinople, (381); revised the Nicene Creed into present form used in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches.
\n
Councils accepted by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Oriental Orthodox Communion as Ecumenical\n*
Council of Ephesus, (
431); repudiated
Nestorianism, proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God (Greek,
Ό Θεοτοκος).
\n
Councils accepted by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches as Ecumenical\n*
Council of Chalcedon, (
451); repudiated the
Eutychian doctrine of
monophysitism, described and delineated the two natures of Christ, human and divine; adopted the
Chalcedonian Creed.\n*
Second Council of Constantinople, (
553); reaffirmed decisions and doctrines explicated by previous Councils, condemned new Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite writings.\n*
Third Council of Constantinople, (
680-
681); repudiated
Monothelitism, affirmed that Christ had both human and Divine wills.\n*
Second Council of Nicaea, (
787); restoration of the veneration of
Icons and end of the first
Iconoclasm
\n
Council accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church but disputed by some Roman Catholics\n*Quinisext Council or Council in Trullo, (
692); mostly an administrative council that affirmed some local canons to Ecumenical status and established principles of clerical discipline. It is not considered to be a full-fledged council in its own right as it did not determine matters of doctrine.
\n
Councils called by the Popes of Rome (as opposed to Popes of Alexandria) and accepted only by Roman Catholics\n*
Fourth Council of Constantinople, (
869-
870) Deposed patriarch
Saint Photius of Constantinople. This deposition was not accepted by the Church as a whole. \n*
First Council of the Lateran, (
1123) \n*
Second Council of the Lateran, (
1139)\n*
Third Council of the Lateran, (
1179) \n*
Fourth Council of the Lateran, (
1215) \n*
First Council of Lyons, (
1245)\n*
Second Council of Lyons, (
1274)\n*
Council of Vienne, (
1311-
1312) \n*
Council of Constance, (
1414-
1418)\n*
Council of Siena, (
1423-
1424) \n*
Council of Basel, (
1431-
1445) - also met at Ferrara and Florence - nomenclature is difficult\n*Fifth Council of the Lateran, (
1512-
1517)\n*
Council of Trent, (
1545-
1563, discontinuously)\n*
First Vatican Council,
1870; clarification of the doctrine of
papal infallibility\n*
Second Vatican Council, (
1962-
1965); modernization of church doctrine, end of requirement that under the Roman rite Mass be said in Latin, etc.
See also:
Synod
Category:Eastern Orthodoxy\nCategory:Oriental Orthodoxy\nCategory:Roman Catholic Church
