Review article
Communio and Successio in the Theology of the Petrine Ministry
Niko Ikić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5634-0387
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Sarajevo, Kaptol 7, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
What is the real theological-ecclesial and jurisdictional-legal sense of the Petrine ministry? Possible answers to this question depend first on the religion to which you belong, and second, on the time period from which you are looking for an answer. In doing so, one has to be bear in mind that this ministry has historically been burdened with various matters, mostly socio-political influences. In line with the time, as the ministry was evolving, so it was being theologically justified. For example, from Augustine, there is a strong development of the idea of two states, two authorities: priestly sacerdotium and royal imperium, which was in the scholastic period expressed by the idea of two swords (spiritual and secular) where it was known which one was more important. The authority and power of this ministry throughout history was not easy to witness in the framework of the New Testament and it was even more difficult to theologically explain it in that spirit.
By a combination of political circumstances after the First Vatican Council and the adoption of the dogma of the primacy and infallibility, and in the spirit of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the theology is now in a position to seek a modus vivendi et agendi of this ministry by strongly fitting it into exclusively ecclesial frameworks and basing it on the sacramentality of the Church. This kind of theological approach to this ministry goes into its depths from which the ministry grows to its heights. In that sense, the article examines the terms communio and successio in relation to the Petrine ministry.
Keywords
communio; successio; primacy; the college of bishops; sacramentality
Hrčak ID:
122539
URI
Publication date:
4.6.2014.
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