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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA Ecclesiology And THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Ecclesiology and Ecumenism: Recent Anglican-Lutheran Agreements on Episcopacy from a Catholic Perspective A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Elizabeth Marie Smith Washington, D.C. 2017 2 Ecclesiology and Ecumenism: Recent Anglican-Lutheran Agreements on Episcopacy from a Catholic Perspective Elizabeth Marie Smith, Ph.D Michael Root, Ph.D. In the 1990s, various Lutheran and Anglican churches in Europe and North America entered into full communion on the basis of agreements which overcame their previous differences over episcopacy and historic succession. While these agreements have been the subject of intense scrutiny in these churches, they have received little attention from Catholic theologians. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze and evaluate these agreements on episcopacy from a Catholic perspective, asking if the Catholic Church can glean any theological or methodological wisdom from them in her own ecumenical discussions. Chapter one begins with a brief discussion of the ecumenical imperative for the Catholic Church, with special attention to the theology of Karl Rahner, Heinrich Fries, and Unitatis Redintegratio. Chapter two looks historically at the topic of apostolic succession and at the many conversations held between the Anglican and Lutheran communions on this topic. This chapter aims to provide important contextual information for analyzing the primary documents. Chapter three, then, surveys the primary documents that arose out of the discussions between Anglican and Lutheran communions in the U.S., Canada, and Northern Europe that led to full communion. It traces the development of central themes that often run between several or all documents. Chapter four discusses the reception history and evaluation of the primary documents as well as their implementation. Chapter five offers a Catholic perspective, evaluating the extent to which these documents prove helpful to the Catholic Church in her ecumenical endeavors with regard to the historic episcopate. This dissertation by Elizabeth Marie Smith fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in systematic theology approved by Michael Root, Ph.D., as Director, and by Christopher Ruddy, Ph.D., and William G. Rusch, D.Phil. as Readers. ____________________________________ Michael Root, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Christopher Ruddy, Ph.D. ____________________________________ William G. Rusch, D.Phil. ii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Preliminary Concerns Regarding Ecumenism, Ecclesiology, and the Episcopate 1.1: The value of ecumenism (1) 1.2: The Role of Ecclesiology and the Episcopate in Ecumenical Discussions (4) Chapter 2: Contextual Information about the Primary Documents 2.1: Selection of Primary Documents (10) 2.2: Apostolic Succession, Historic Succession of the Episcopate, and the Laying on of Hands in the New Testament (12) 2.3: Apostolic Succession, Historic Succession of the Episcopate, and the Laying on of Hands in the Patristic Writings (22) 2.4: Apostolic Succession, Historic Succession of the Episcopate, and the Laying on of Hands in the Writings of the Lutheran and Anglican Reformers (30) 2.5: Contextual Information about the Anglican-Lutheran Dialogues from the Reformation through the Early Twentieth Century (36) 2.6: Contextual Information about the Anglican-Lutheran Dialogues Internationally (44) 2.7: Contextual Information about the Anglican-Lutheran Dialogues in the United States (46) 2.8: Contextual Information about the Anglican-Lutheran Dialogues in Europe (56) 2.9: Contextual Information about the Anglican-Lutheran Dialogues in Canada (61) Chapter 3: A Survey of the Contents of the Primary Material 3.1: What is Full Communion? (67) 3.2: The Problem Stated (71) 3.3: Highlighting Commonalities and Existing Unity (76) 3.4: A Legitimate Diversity (83) iii 3.5: Accommodations and Adaptations on Behalf of the Lutherans (87) 3.6: Accommodations and Adaptations on the Anglican and Episcopalian Side (97) 3.7: Declarations (109) 3.8: Essays on the Concordat of Agreement/Dissenting Report and Porvoo Common Statement (114) Chapter 4: Evaluation and Reception of Primary Documents 4.1: Unity Within Diversity (129) 4.2: A Broader Definition of Apostolic Succession than Historic Succession (134) 4.3: Resulting Ecclesiological Considerations (139) 4.4: Accommodations Made by Partner Churches (144) 4.5: Summary Remarks (148) Chapter 5: Testing the Fruits of This Study for the Catholic Church 5.1: Summary of the Major Issues (150) 5.2a: Catholic Thinkers with a Narrow Understanding of Apostolic Succession (155) 5.2b: Catholic Thinkers with a Broad Understanding of Apostolic Succession (162) 5.2c Confrontation of Broad and Narrow Understanding of Apostolic Succession (168) 5.3a: Divisive Disagreement vs. Legitimate Diversity (177) 5.3b: The Issue of Defectus (186) 5.3c: Questions of Validity (191) 5.4: The Nature of the Unity Being Sought (200) 5.5a: Modes of Reconciliation (211) 5.5b: Ministry vs. Ordination (227) 5.6: Koinonia and Kenosis (230) Appendix 1 (237) Bibliography (243) iv Chapter 1: Preliminary Concerns Regarding Ecumenism, Ecclesiology, and the Episcopate 1.1: The value of ecumenism This dissertation aims to explore the role of the historic episcopate in the ecclesiology of two denominations within Protestantism; from there, it will survey the extent to which specific advances in ecumenical discussions involving this topic can prove fruitful for the Catholic Church. The two denominations to be explored are Anglicanism and Lutheranism. More specifically, Anglicanism will be understood as members of the Anglican or Episcopal Communion in Northern Europe, the U.S., and Canada tracing their heritage to the Church of England. Lutheranism will be understood as inheritors of Martin Luther’s religious heritage in the same countries. Before investigating the role of the historic episcopate (in particular) and its role in ecclesiology (in general) germane to these two communions and their discussions among one another, however, we must step back and consider the value of ecumenical dialogue. The bulk of Catholic evaluation of the Anglican-Lutheran dialogues will be reserved for chapter five. However, it is appropriate at this point to provide an understanding from a Catholic perspective for why this is important in the first place. In their 1983 book, Karl Rahner and Heinrich Fries issue a “cry of distress”1 demanding what they deem an “urgent matter of survival for Christianity”2: the reunification of the now divided Christian denominations. They name the secularism, atheism, and religious pluralism of our current age as an indication of this necessity; such an age cries out for the saving power of Christian truth, but the fraction of Christianity into various opposing denominations undermines its credibility and efficacy. They rightly observe that a broken church is hard to sell. Moreover, this disunity is an 1 Heinrich Fries and Karl Rahner, Unity of the Churches: An Actual Possibility (Eugene, OR, Wipf & Stock, 1983), 3. 2 Rahner/Fries, 1. 1 2 internal flaw; “the unity of the Church is the commandment of the Lord, who will demand from the leaders of the churches an accounting as to whether or not they have really done everything possible in this matter.”3 We cannot currently claim to be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,”4 since we are many, local churches. For these reasons, the consolidation of all denominations is a “matter of life or death for Christendom.”5 The kind of reunification that Rahner and Fries call for is not a “Church of uniformity, but rather as a unity in variety, as conciliar fellowship, as Church of reconciled diversity.”6 While they argue that uniformity must be maintained in such things as belief in scripture and in the creeds of the Apostles, Nicaea, and Constantinople, so as to ensure that the Christian faith “does not mean just any form of religiosity whatsoever,”7 they also highlight that adaptation in non-essentials in the spirit of ecumenism is “to be endured for the sake of honesty.”8 Harding Meyer, in a book named after Jesus’ own instruction/prayer That All May Be One (John 17:21), highlight, in agreement with the tenor of Rahner and Fries’ book, that unity belongs to the very nature of the church, which he calls the “basic ecumenical conviction.” This conviction is paired with what they refer to as the “ecumenical imperative,” the belief that the ecumenical conviction must be made manifest not only by subscribing to unity in theory but by visibly living into this unity. 9 3 Rahner/Fries, 1. 4 Rahner/Fries, 2. 5 Rahner/Fries, 1. 6 Rahner/Fries, 107. 7 Rahner/Fries, 13. 8 Rahner/Fries, 2. 9 C.f. Harding Meyer, That All May Be One: Perceptions and Models of Ecumenicity, Translated by William G. Rusch (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999). 3 In his 1995 encyclical Ut unum sint, Pope Saint John Paul II states, “Christ calls all his disciples to unity.”10 Highlighting that “Jesus himself, at the hour of his Passion, prayed "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21), 11 the pope makes an ecclesiological inference: This unity, which the Lord has bestowed on his Church and in which he wishes to embrace all people, is not something added on, but stands at the very heart of Christ's mission. Nor is it some secondary attribute of the community of his disciples. Rather, it belongs to the very essence of this community.12 Recalling “the call for Christian unity made by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council with such impassioned commitment,”13 he turns Catholics toward such statements as the following from Unitatis Redintegratio: The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only. However, many Christian communions present themselves to men as the true inheritors of Jesus Christ; all indeed profess to be followers of the Lord but differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ Himself were divided.
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