Understanding development of the papacy

[To understand what this blog is, read this first.]

It seems that this is papacy week for me.  After the last post I made about a book I had read on the development of the papacy I came across a document called The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millenniumissued by the Joint Coordinating Committee for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.  I think the content of that document reflects the Orthodox view of the papacy very well, and while long, is much shorter than a book, so enjoy.

 

Origins of the Papacy

[To understand what this blog is, read this first.]

A picture of Pope Pius XII made after his election to the papacy in 1939. It was composed by a French nun, who donated it to the Pontiff. He upon looking at it, decided “this is not me” and gave to Madre Pascalina Lehnert, who gave to the copyholder. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This doesn’t have anything to do with current research I’m doing or a letter I’m writing, but it just came to mind so I thought I’d mention it before it escaped my tiny attention span.  When doing research on the papacy I ran across this old book, now out of copyright, and read it.  Even though the author does have a bit of an axe to grind as an ex-Catholic priest (he became Orthodox), he was an extremely informed man it appears and I found it very informative and thorough on the subject of the development of the papacy.  Don’t discount old books.  Just because a book wasn’t written in the last ten years doesn’t mean it’s out of date or irrelevant.  There’s a LOT in this book to consider.

Thanks to Google you can also get it in ebook form, which is super handy.  You can get the ebook by clicking the button on the top left that says Read Ebook.

The Papacy: Its Historic Origin and Primitive Relations with the Eastern Churches by Abbe Guettee, D.D.