Unveiling Catholicism: An Etymological and Mystical Narrative of a Spectrum, Celebrating a World of Coexisting Traditions Beyond the Monolithic Tradition and Teaching Office
Abstract:
The paper explores the dynamic and diverse nature of Catholicism, tracing its historical development, theological intricacies, and the intricate relationship between spirituality and worldly powers. Acknowledging internal discord within the Catholic Church and related traditions, it underscores the historical diversity within the broader church of the first millennium, challenging the perception of a monolithic entity. Delving into the etymological roots of Catholicism, the paper interprets the term 'katholikos' as "about the whole" or "in general," suggesting a theological church addressing the plurality of churches, each led by a singular bishop. The discussion extends to historical shifts, influenced by empire dynamics, with bishops embodying theophanic power and adopting hierarchical structures resembling synagogues on a larger scale. Examining theological developments across various fathers, the paper critiques biased framings that oversimplify theology, emphasizing the need for a broader understanding. Contrasting views on concepts like hell illustrates the diversity within Christian traditions. In conclusion, the paper contends that the church has always been expansive and in continuous development, challenging rigidity in certain epochs and advocating for a theology that embraces diversity while preserving the autonomy of local communities within the wider church narrative, emphasizing the concept of sobornost (catholicity) from the bottom up.
(AI Generated summary)
It should not be surprising to us that religion consistently remains a focal point of contention and internal discord among many groups even within the singular “one church” views of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This holds then obviously even among groups that share similar narratives, such as the various Orthodox communions (whether Chalcedonian or Miaphysite), the Catholic Church (comprising churches under Rome commonly referred to as Roman Catholicism), and the once largest and illustrious Church of the East (commonly known as the Assyrian Church of the East, now grappling with internal divisions related to the calendar and political struggles), but that is not “one church”. The term ‘Catholic’ has historically been used interchangeably with other terms, including the term ‘Orthodox,’ within the first millennium. While certain communities within the major Apostolic Churches (for lack of a more proper term) have contested this at various points, often due to a deficient narrative of ecclesiology or a misinterpretation of theology, it remains a reality. The broader church of the first millennium, even amidst its schisms, was never a codified singular church or tradition. The ecumenical councils accomplishing a sense of singularity can be overdriven when one focuses on how the bodies who attended these councils then colloquially interpreted them differently within their local traditions to different extents. Instead, Catholicism existed as a broad group of churches with numerous challenges, divisions, obstacles, diverse voices, and divergent traditions expressing widely differing views. Nevertheless, it retained its identity as the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Christianity of the first millennium mirrors the contemporary diversity and theological disputes and problems that are observed in today’s post-Reformation era. Whether one aligns with Pope Francis or Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople, or if one embraces progressive or traditional Christian values, or simply if one just occupies a more peripheral cultural or centralized narrative of Christianity, the reality persists. Christianity was, is, and unfortunately, will continue to be marked by internal diversity and schisms, even amid our prayers for unity. Yet rather than dwelling on the schisms in our superficial human nature and faith, let us direct our attention to the profound and encompassing spectrum that we can find in the traditions of faith. The internal dynamics of the church unfold as a dynamic and expansive broad and growing enormously spectrum, adapting locally to the needs of its people and assimilating elements from their cultures, and, interestingly, principles from their previous faiths even. This is not a new and concerning phenomenon; historical evidence, such as the ostracon from Elephantine, reveals the dynamic and diverse nature of ‘the Hebrew people’, encompassing even the existence of Jewish priestesses in the Egyptian diaspora [1], not to mention even some more controversial pieces of evidence discovered within archeology and inter-textual theoretical narratives.
Even moving within the framework of Jesus’ lifetime, that is Second Temple communities, the spectrum widens further than most of us would previously think. This spectrum exists embracing Pharisees, Sadducees, Samaritans, Zealots, Essenes, Herodians, and, within the Jesus movement, eventually Christians. Even within this diversity, each community holds parts that are seemingly adopted by Jesus. To claim a singular truth or rather a single non-variable office or tradition within this diverse epoch remains rather controversial and in short, wrong. References in Matthew can easily be attributed to likely Shammai, which underscore a tradition emphasizing adherence to Mosaic law from Jesus to his [Jewish] followers such as seen in Matthew 5-7, and Matthew 19:9, while possible even Hillel references can be showcased observing a deeper Hellenic influence, evident in teachings like the golden rule as seen specifically on Matthew 7:12 and Luke 10:25 can be argued to have this specific origin at least internally among the Jewish traditions. Evenhandedly, the political dimension within the New Testament introduces a pragmatic interpretation of Messianic prophecies, aligning with the Isaiah tradition rather than the dynamics of Hosea and Elijah. The Christian narrative of the Messiah, intertwined with Neo-Platonic and Hellenic influences, suggests even a deeper shared wellspring which although flows limitedly reflects nevertheless an inner dynamic birth acquired from the Essene communities [2] [3] [4]. Whose influences of these communities will in the eve of our theological ongoing understanding offer new and pragmatic reflection as the origin of Christian hermits, that is from the traditions of John the Baptist and Jesus’ desert isolation, evolving into the monastic practices of Acts 6:1-6 seemingly birthed into the communal and hard lives of their communities. Furthermore, continuing our pursuit of this thematic exploration, we can even connections to Sadducees’ priesthood and apostolic succession that can be explored, highlighting the broader spectrum of Christianity. In synthesis, historical, textual, and theological evidence attests that Judaism and the Jesus movement, that is what we refer to as Christianity, constituted broad, evolving traditions, devoid of a singular, narrow trajectory within a uniform office tradition or movement, but were rather willing to adopt across different spectrums and were devised and articulated in proliferating their teachings in an epoch that echoed across a vast and wide canyon that transcend often our pre-conceived notions.
The Etymological Origins of Catholicism
The broader sense is perhaps best understood by taking a direct dive into the origin of the word Catholic. The word takes its origins in Koine Greek, that is the word katholikos (καθολικός) which takes its etymological origin from the combination of the words kata (κατά) and holos (ὅλος). The etymological bases of kata mean about, and holos means whole. In a sense, the combination creates the articulate meaning of the phrase Katholikos, which can be understood as “about the whole/in general”. The sense is then to narrate the idea of a broader theological church, it was not in the incorporation of one single church, but rather a way to deal with the plurality of the churches which each seemed to possess a singular bishop (presbyter) as emphasized on Acts 11:30 and Titus 1:5. Ignatius of Antioch’s concern is raised with the lack of hierarchical authority in a post-Apostles Church which had adopted the Hellenic Greek Jewish synagogues that were also organized in elders and aids whose main centers were in Northern Egypt, and Antioch. These synagogues were organized by those families that purchased the building which later passed to administered by a group of elders (presbysteroi) who became managed under a larger authority of an archisynagogos [5]. The Christian church thus moves in the direction of adopting a larger view which emphasizes the existence of a hierarchical elder reflecting the idea of adopting the structure of centralizing power to fight inner divisions. For Ignatius, the bishop is a representative of a theophanic power and thus the community is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13) who follows the bishop as Jesus follows the Father [6]. In this sense, the theophanic power is then reorganized to indicate a theophany within the hierarchical structure of the churches. The churches are then organized in a sense that articulates a synagogue’s dynamic hierarchical structure in a wider dimension.
Church and Empire: The History
Expanding on Ignatius’ broader perspective, the bishop, according to his view, represented a theophanic power, and the community operated as the body of Christ, following the bishop in a manner akin to Jesus following the Father [6]. Within this framework, the theophanic power experienced a reorganization to manifest within the hierarchical structure of the churches. These churches were structured to emulate the dynamic hierarchical organization of synagogues but on a more extensive scale. In this context, the churches marked the initial narrative of a development that still retained, in principle, the Jewish essence of Christianity. Subsequently, the historical trajectory of the evolving church continued, adopting a deeper sense of Metropolitan city structures. This evolution aligned with the empire’s power structures, embracing the archbishop dynamic over local bishops and creating a broader context for ‘The Church’ [7] within the social dynamics of the empire. The Catholic sense, in its ecclesiastical perspective, reflects a wide adaptation of a structure to local necessities, synthesizing and mandating a compromise between the broad and the narrow.
The Fathers: From Present to the Past
In the wider sense, it establishes not only the broader narrative of the etymological bases of the word Catholic, that which shows that the empire influenced the development of ecclesiology. Parenthetically, the fuller picture also includes a necessity to re-introduce the wide range of the fathers from our current discoveries of documents, and not just a modern sense that seeks dogmatic conclusions, but also one that amalgamates the political and cultural context that influences them. Harnessing the wide range of the theological narrative across Latin, Greek, Syriac, etc fathers is necessary to comprehend the true broader Catholicity of which we are inheritors.
In the modern context, certain Catholic and Orthodox circles witness an unchallenged echo chamber attempting to construct a narrative that portrays Catholicism as synonymous with either Thomas Aquinas or the myth of unchanging causation, negating the existence of any development in liturgy and doctrine. This biased framing oversimplifies theology across various fields, creating a perception that undermines the authentic foundation of the principles constituting Early Christianity. Unfortunately, many Thomists and Palamist zealots contribute to this by trivializing the significance of the diverse theological landscape that shaped and should continue to shape the church.
Delving into the depths of the Latin church, which often traces its foundational origin to Augustine’s narrative of hell as eternal suffering with physical flames [8], we encounter a view of the eternal soul rooted in Plato’s wider narrative [9]. Tertullian, who incorporated Plato’s concept of the immortality of the soul [10], played a crucial role in bringing this perspective into the Western narrative. Augustine’s popularity further solidified this foundational theological view of hell in the West. On the contrary, the narratives of St. Isaac of Syria present a temporal hell, where God chastises the unrighteous, gradually leading them toward conversion and sanctification [11]. This version of Hell symbolizes the unrighteous standing before God, with His overwhelming love serving as the purifying fire for the soul [12]. Maximus, in his perspective, asserts that this expansive narrative is only conceivable through the incarnation, as the entire universe is Christological [13] [14]. Beyond these contrasting views, a broader narrative of the spectrum of theology emerges. Theology has always been diverse, local, and inherently different. Even among Syriac and Greek fathers mentioned above, distinctive theological traits can be identified. The essence of theology allows for the emergence of a broader church, reflecting the rich tapestry of perspectives that have shaped the Christian tradition.
Conclusion
The undeniable reality is that the church has always been expansive and in a continual state of development. The rigidity experienced in certain epochs of Christianity is not an intrinsic quality but rather a consequence of political developments that have, currently do, and will continue to necessitate churches—be they Russian, Greek, Latin, or others—to bow to the golden crowns of the world. This reality often underscores the challenging interplay between spiritual principles and worldly powers. The call for theology to be broader extends beyond the intellectual realm to encompass the very spirituality that shapes our understanding of the world.
Within these diverse voices, one can discern the existence of multiple sui iuris within the Catholic Church or the multiple autocephalous and autonomous churches in the Orthodox world. While these multiple churches theoretically allow for the development of local traditions, the potential richness of these diverse chambers is often overshadowed by the centralization of power seeking to suppress the voices of local communities. This tension raises essential questions about the delicate balance between unity and diversity within the broader Christian community. However, in a broader sense, the focus of Catholicity lies in the local church, as it is there that theology is reflected in a pastoral context. The local church embodies sobornost (catholicity), not in a top-down approach, but rather from the bottom up [15]. The over centralization which have across the board developed in chirstianity often underscores the importance of recognizing and preserving the autonomy and voices of local communities within the wider church narrative, and yet, it is the local church whose role is the more impactful on the Christian world.
Bibliography
[1] The Israelite Priestess in the Nile Island’s Temple – A Groundbreaking Discovery. [Film]. 2015.
[2] 4. Q246.
[3] 1QpSa2.11-14.
[4] R. Bauckham, “The Messianic Interpretation of Isa. 10:34 in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 2 Baruch and the Preaching of John the Baptist,” JSTOR, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 265-285202-216, June 1995.
[5] ““Chapter Seven The Remarkable Story of Hellenistic Judaism.”,” 2014. [Online]. Available: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cdn.vanderbilt.edu+judaism+uploads+2019&atb=v315-1&ia=web#:~:text=Chapter%20Seven%20The%20Remarkable%20Story%20of%20Hellenistic%20Judaism.
[6] I. o. Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 8, Antioch, Syria, 110.
[7] S. Robert B. Eno, “Conclusion,” in The Rise of the Papacy, Wilmington, Michael Glazier, Inc, 1935, p. 147.
[8] T. Talbott, “Heaven and Hell in Christian Thought,” 23 April 2013. [Online]. Available: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heaven-hell/#AugUndHel. [Accessed 15 January 2024].
[9] S. J. Godwin, “Plato’s Immortality of the Soul,” 2019. [Online]. Available: http://www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/plato_immortality_soul.htm. [Accessed 15 January 2024].
[10] R. Roberts, “THE ATTITUDE OF TERTULLIAN TOWARDS GREEK PHILOSOPHY,” 1924. [Online]. Available: https://www.tertullian.org/articles/roberts_theology/roberts_04.htm. [Accessed 15 January 2024].
[11] S. I. t. Syrian, in Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 2011.
[12] Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, “Section 251,” in Christ Our Pascha, Kyiv, Edmonton, 2018.
[13] D. J. d. Wood, The Whole Mystery of Creation: Creation as Inccarnation in Maximus Confessor, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2022.
[14] H. U. v. Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, San Francisco, California: Ignatius Press, 2003, pp. 312-313,343-358.
[15] V. Alexandrov, Nicholas Afanasiev and His Eucharistic Ecclesiology., Moscow: Saint Philaret’s Christian Orthodox Institute, 2018.
TheosisPlus 