History of Christian Thought - Essay Example

EAST AND WEST Pope is a term from Greek word “papas”, which means “father”. In the historical Christian beliefs, the word “father” signified respect and honor preserved to the top most preachers who were bishops or casual priests. The history of papacy, or Pope, to be specific, connects to Biblical teachings about Jesus and Peter (Matthew16:13-19). In the mentioned book, it becomes certain that Jesus enjoyed concrete and spiritual relation with Simon Peter. This became evident just after Simon proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah and the only Son of God. It is then that Jesus named Simon his chief disciple, giving him the name Peter meaning “rock”. At the point of the naming, Jesus blessed Simon and made his promise of building an everlasting and Holy Church upon the “rock” that was Simon Peter. Upon the death of Jesus Christ, Simon Peter became the Chief priest and head of the other disciples to spearhead the apostolic era spread of the Gospel. It then happened that Simon Peter became the first person among the disciples to establish the very first church in Rome (Dowley 195). As believed by many Catholics, the murder of Peter took place in Rome, where he also served as the head of Christians in the region and across the world. Guettee notes that many Christian believers and particularly Catholics believe that the Roman bishop received Peter’s mantle to lead the Christian flock across the world. Catholics also believe that before Peter died, he entrusted the bishop of Rome with the responsibilities of building and caring for established Church. With the existing belief and honor granted to the bishop of Rome as the leader and head of largest section of the Christian Church, and as an attribute to Peter, Adrian I declared himself as the Pope, a trend matured by Nicholas I and upheld further by King Gregory VII. Episcopacy is a form of government organization developed to rule the church (Dowley 196.). The rise of episcopacy in Christianity in the early Church attaches to the presbyter. Presbyter was a priest and overseer in the various churches and believed to develop from the Apostles of Jesus Christ during the spread of the Gospel. Papandrea explains that the concurrent growth and increase in population of Christians facilitated the formation of higher position of bishop of Rome, also considered as father bearing the great responsibility of exercising control of the Catholics in Rome and beyond (23). As the churches grew with characterization of multitude of followers, it became hard for the bishop to manage the churches single handedly, thus, the need to develop some other positions and offices to help manage the churches. The newly formed positions comprised the priests who were still presbyters and deacons, all of whom had the responsibilities of serving various divisions of Christians. Both the priest and the deacons were answerable to the bishop. It is worth noting that the deacons were assistants of the priests and, therefore, every church or congregation had the two dignitaries. Bishop of Rome enjoyed exclusive rights to appoint, dismiss the priests and deacons, approve church members and even baptize church members. Bishop of Rome also exercised absolute control over the finances of the various churches under his control and settled disputes among the church members. The Bishop of Rome also headed other bishops serving in other cities and countries. The entire system was what entailed the episcopacy. The bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope, played various functions, center of which was the unification of the Christian religion (Dowley 200). Bishop of Rome mediated between Christians upon emergence of any conflicts and differences. For instance, Leo the Great met with the barbarians of Hun in 452 and the barbarians of Vandal in 455 to negotiate the modalities of restoring peace in Rome through withdrawal of the threats posed by the barbarians. Pope Gregory 1 also led negotiation with the Lombard barbarians in 592 to ensure withdrawal of the barbarians on the promise of annual tribute (Papandrea 67). The office of the bishop of Rome brokered harmony between the Orthodox Christians of the East and the Catholic Christians of the West. The Bishop also acted as the leader of the government of the Church as exercised absolute authority to appoint and dismiss other church officials like the bishops, cardinals and deacons. In addition, the bishop of Rome held the responsibilities of creating dioceses and orders that governed the Catholic Church. Popes also performed the roles of anointing new emperors to rule in Rome. For example, Pope Leo III anointed the son of Emperor Charlemagne as the heir of the emperor. According to Bartle, additional roles of the bishop of Rome included maintaining the Canonical laws as well as directing punishments to any individual found to have broken the laws. It was also the responsibility of the bishop of Rome to ensure uniform proliferation of the Catholic faith across the world to achieve a unified Catholic Church. Considered as the successor of Peter who had spiritual attachments, the bishop of Rome also interpreted and explained the natural laws with reference to the Biblical provisions. In addition, the Bishop of Rome also dictated and determined how and when certain mass celebrations within the Catholic Church would occur. Moreover, the Bishop of Rome also protected sacramental rites, believed to be given to the Christians by Jesus Christ himself before his death. Christians believe that after the establishment of the church in Rome by Peter, the church became a greater institution that not only performed religious roles but also political roles. These roles played by the ancient Pope saw the church growing at a faster rate. Synods formed the basis of holding councils’ meeting with the view of determining certain issues that threatened smooth operation of the Papacy. For instance, the first synod took place in 1409 in Pisa where the council intended to solve ideological differences between Pope Gregory XII of Rome and Benedict XIII of Avignon. The reason for holding the synod related to the fears of the council over the possibility of the schism resulting from the conflict between the two popes of Europe. In arriving at the solution, the council deliberated on appointing Alexander V to become the third Pope in Europe. Another crucial synod took place in Rome in 1059 where Pope Nicholas II condemned the abuses in the church. This condemnation followed the act by Emperor Henry III of denouncing three popes who appeared to oppose his desires (Papandrea 54). The growth and the spread of the church to other regions saw the amalgamation of other languages like Greek of the East that did not cohere well with the Latin of the West. According to Papandrea, language difference was one reason that compounded the schism of the Church in 1054 (45). However, the main reason for the fallout attributed to the ideological differences over the roles of Pope between Pope Leo IX of the West and the Michael 1 of the Eastern Church. The cause of the differences emanated after the fall of the Roman Emperor that left bishop of Rome to organize and execute political roles to the people. In fulfilling this need, the Pope created a political system comprised of bishops and deacons who were answerable to the pope in Rome (Dowley 263). When this system appeared to work well in Rome, the bishop of Rome planned to extend the mode of rule to the oversee countries of the East. Suddenly, the plan met hurdles from the Eastern Church that questioned the eligibility of the Pope functioning both as political and spiritual leader. Another significant cause of the schism was the ideological differences concerned the Nicene Creed. In this difference, the Western Church held that Holy Spirit resulted from both God the Father, and the Son. Eastern Church, on other hand, maintained that Holy Spirit was only of the Father and not involving the Son. Another line of disagreement between the Western and the Eastern Church occurred as per the exact dating of Easter celebrations (Papandrea 56). The Western Church mainly comprised of Roman Catholic celebrated Easter on the very first Sunday after 21 March following the appearance of the full moon. The Eastern Church, on the other hand, considered celebrating Easter on the first Sunday following the appearance of the full moon and following the Passover. Theologians also believe that the divide between the Western and Eastern Church aggravated due to the ideological view of hierarchy in the church leadership. The Eastern division tended to consider bishops, archbishops and any other top officials in the church leadership in equal measure. The Western Church, on the other hand, maintained vertical hierarchy form of church leadership with the bishop being the head followed by priests (presbyters) and then the deacons. In addition, the Eastern Church expressed great opposition to the universal leadership of the bishop of Rome. The entire differences that prevailed between the Eastern and the Western Churches led to the break of the initially unified Christian Church under the supervision of the bishop of Rome to the emergence of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern Churches (Dowley 265). In conclusion, the history of the origins of the Pope and papacy is very complex and, perhaps, based on imagination and tricky fixations. Pope is a name of the highest bishop administering over all the Catholic believers across the world. Bishop of Rome received honor as the father of followers of the Catholic Church and Christianity in general. It was believed that the bishop of Rome, particularly Adrian I, inherited the mantle of Simon Peter who established the first church in Rome and had received blessings of Jesus Christ. It is from this belief that Adrian I considered himself as the Pope of the Catholic Church. The trend further developed with inputs of successive popes and rules of the Roman Emperor. With all believes in action, it is worth speculating that grounds upon which the papacy formed had link with neither the Bible nor Peter in person. When considering the Bible, no verse directly points to the power transition from Peter to the bishop of Rome. The powers and roles assumed by the popes of the Roman Catholic also do not fully reflect the concepts of Christianity. The aforementioned discrepancies in the Roman Catholic among others contributed to the break and fallout of the church to form the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. Works Cited Dowley, Tom. Introduction to the History of Christianity First Century to the Present Day. New York: Augsburg Fortress Pub, 2006. Print. Papandrea, Jim. History of Christian Thought & Practice I: Supplemental Readings. New York: Garrett Education, 2012. Print. Read More