Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 84 No. 2, 2014.
Preliminary communication
The Development of Consciousness of the Papal Primacy. I. A Historical-theological View of the First Millennium
IKIĆ Niko
orcid.org/0000-0001-5634-0387
; Catholic Theological Faculty in Sarajevo, University of Sarajevo, Bosna and Herzegovina
Abstract
A historical-theological view of the growth of consciousness of the papal primacy in the first millennium shows, beyond doubt, that a thesis according to which the primacy, as we understand it today, was already established and accepted in the New Testament or early Christian period, is simplistic and groundless. Although there was a gradual development of consciousness of the primacy from priority to precedence, from precedence to primacy, from universal primacy to jurisdictional primacy, nevertheless, synodality and collegiality were dominant in the first millennium. The process of development of primacy rested on arguments of special apostolic heritage, on Biblical foundation, and universal ecclesiology, which all gradually led to the principle: prima sedes a nemine iudicatur – the first see cannot be judged by anyone. The spread of the papal jurisdictional primacy can be summarised in three spatial zones of Central and Southern Italy in the sense of the Western Metropoly. The wider circle included Northern Italy and its centres in Milano and Aquileia, Gallia, and Dalmatia, all the way to some parts of Greece in the sense of the Western Patriarchy. The widest ring of some jurisdiction included Spain and North Africa, in which the real jurisdiction of the Roman pope has been felt the least. On the other side, the Christian East has always disputed jurisdictional primacy of the pope, though de facto it acknowledged it more than being simply primatus honoris. This article begins by taking a look at the New Testament’s character of apostle Peter, while its subsections follow the aforementioned gradual development. The author points out a certain papal priority in the early Christian period and moves on to prove more concrete precedence in the dogmatically controversial period. The author draws attention to a stronger consciousness of primacy from 6th until 8th century and he concludes with the aspiration to universal primacy at the end of the first millennium.
Keywords
Peter; papal authorit; , primac; synodality; Christian East
Hrčak ID:
124969
URI
Publication date:
11.7.2014.
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