[Kolokotronis]

"This is either empty nonsense as regards the Catholicism, or inaccurate. The councils of the Church, past or future, are rooted in the deposit of the apostolic faith just as much as the Orthodox Church is as she defines her teaching on the issues facing modernity."

Got to agree with Alex on this one, FK!

[HarleyD]

annalex-""This is either empty nonsense as regards the Catholicism, or inaccurate. The councils of the Church, past or future, are rooted in the deposit of the apostolic faith just as much as the Orthodox Church is as she defines her teaching on the issues facing modernity."

Kolo-Got to agree with Alex on this one, FK!

Well, perhaps you can tell me if the Pope is infallible. After all, it's rooted in "tradition".

[jo kus]

The councils of the Church, past or future, are rooted in the deposit of the apostolic faith just as much as the Orthodox Church is as she defines her teaching on the issues facing modernity."

I am currently reading Pelikan's "The Spirit of Eastern Christendom", in particular, The Authority of the Fathers. I think Protestants would be quite amazed to find that the Church considered the Consensus of the Fathers AND Ecumenical Councils as inspired by God, just as Scriptures are.

Here is a quote from the book:

"The authority of Scripture, then, was the authority of a Scripture properly interpreted, that is interpreted according to the spiritual sense and in harmony with patristic exegesis... So intimate was the connection between the Scripture and the Fathers that in one sentence, 'the Holy Apostle Paul...and Gregory of Nazianzus, the greate and wondrous teacher" could be invoked together. The difference between the apostles and the church fathers seems to have been one more of degree than of kind...

" "And so the attribute "insprired by God", which the NT used only once and applied to the OT, could be applied also to the Church Fathers. The attributes and epithets that came to be attached to the names of individual fathers are a significant index of their special grace and inspiration. Athanasius was 'this God-bearing teacher' and 'the inerrant winner of contests'; Basil was "the great eye of the Church", meaning "the leading light; Clement of Alexandria was the 'philosopher of philosophers', whose adaptations of Platonic theories had a special force in the Church; Dionysius the Areopagite... was 'the one who truly spoke of God, the great and holy Dionysius'..." etc...

Taken together, these inspired and holy fathers of the church catholic, Eastern and Western, were the norm of traditional doctrine and standard of Christian orthodoxy.Spirit of Eastern Christendom, pg 21-22

The Fathers were authoritative and binding when it reflected the mind of the Catholic and Universal Church.

Regards