This is a treatise of the communion of saints, which continues to suffer doctrinal authenticity as an Article of Faith of the Apostles Creed. The book reveals it is a profound expression of the sacramental truth of the Eucharist, which is the portal of Christian Humanism characterized by human dignity, unity, justice and the common good. The Doctrine of COMMUNION OF SAINTS: Sacramental Paradigm of Christian Humanism By Nithyananda Augustus Nathan Order the book from the publisher BookLocker.com https://www.booklocker.com/p/books/10792.html?s=pdf or from your favorite neighborhood or online bookstore. Copyright © 2021 Nithyananda Augustus Nathan ISBN: 978-1-63263-738-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Published by BookLocker.com, Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida. 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Second Edition, 2020, 2021 CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................... vii ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 PART I - UNDERSTANDING THE COMMUNION .......................................... 15 Chapter 1 - Origin and Development ..................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 - Communion of Saints .......................................................................... 51 Chapter 3 - Divine Love ........................................................................................ 75 Chapter 4 - The Trinity .......................................................................................... 99 Chapter 5 - Social Commission of the Apostles’ Creed ....................................... 155 PART II - SACRAMENTS OF CHRISTIAN HUMANISM ............................. 239 Chapter 6 - Sacramentality of Christian Personhood ........................................... 241 Chapter 7 - Baptism and Human Dignity ............................................................. 301 Chapter 8 - Eucharist and Social Unity ................................................................ 379 Chapter 9 - Church and The Common Good ....................................................... 449 Chapter 10 - Conclusion ...................................................................................... 569 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 575 SELECTIVE NAMES INDEX ............................................................................. 639 PART I UNDERSTANDING THE COMMUNION 5 Chapter 1 Origin and Development The history of communion of saints of the Apostles’ Creed can be traced to the Third Article of Jerome’s Symbol, Sanctorum communionem (Latin), which was formulated by Jerome in the desert of Chalices, southeast of Antioch (377/378 AD): Credo remissionem peccatorum in sancta ecclesia catholica; Sanctorum communionem; Carnis resurrectionem ad vitam aeternam.1 The composite meaning of sanctorum communionem, which constitutes the sancta and the communio can firstly be determined from Jerome’s own use of the expression sanctorum communionem in his Epistulae 92.3 where he referred to the disciplinary measure of the “Separari a communio sanctorum” issued by Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria in the year 401 against Bishop Isidore, a former presbyter.2 It called for separation or suspension of Isidore from the priestly celebration of the Eucharist.3 This sacramental understanding is corroborated by the Imperial Script of 388 AD – an “inhiberi a communio sanctorum” 1 Badcock, History of the Creeds, 76. 2 MPL, v.22, 326; CSL, 54-56. 3 Badcock, History of the Creeds, 93. 17 Understanding the Communion (inhibition of holy communion) – against Apollinarians and other heretics that made it illegal for them to participate in the celebration of the Eucharist or reception of the Holy Communion.4 The Acts of the Council of Nimes (394 AD) is further indicative of its sacramental meaning where it alerts believers of the “simulated” practices of false ecclesiastics who gave the impression that they were authentic in their participation in communio sanctorum, i.e., the Eucharist. For the Latin Fathers and now Saints, such as Cyprian (c.200- 258 AD), Cyril of Jerusalem (c.315-386 AD), Jerome (c.342-420 AD), and Niceta (c.335-c.414 AD), the communio was a genitive combination to a thing that gave rise to the fellowship of the Church in the metaphorical sense. The fellowship was caused by the common participation in the sacraments. Exclusion from the Church, therefore, meant exclusion from the Eucharist. In this regard, the contribution of the German Protestant theologian Ferdinand Kattenbusch, credited by Pope Benedict XVI for the historicity of the Apostles’ Creed, is especially helpful.5 Based on the cannons of the Synod of Elvira (306 AD) Kattenbusch clarified that communio referred to a relationship that should be restricted to the Eucharist. 4 Benko, Meaning of Sanctorum Communio, 94-95. 5 Kattenbusch’s Des aposlolische Symbol (1894) traces the origin of the Apostolic Creed and is recognized for its contribution to the history of dogma and the theology of the Church (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, trans. J.R. Foster, Introduction to Christianity, San Francisco: Communion Books, 2004), 202. 18 Origin and Development The Latin equivalent is also synonymous with the Eucharistic koinonia of Paul (1Cor 10-17) where the communio is identifiable only in the sense of communio corporis et sanguinis Christi (communion of the body and blood of Christ) in such expressions as dominica communio (the gathering of the community on a Sunday); communionem dare (to give communion presumably to give the sacred species to someone); ad communionem admittere (to join a community or to allow a person to receive the sacred species); communionem impertire (to share communion with another person and/or to give communion to another person; communionem praestare (to remain in communion with or to maintain a community) and a communione arcere (which means to reject from the community the reception of the sacred species as imposed by the Council of Arles).6 From a creedal approach, the meaning and significance of sanctorum communionem becomes clearer when it is compared in the structural context and location with other creeds (Table 1). In the East, suffice to mention, Baptism has always been inclusive of the Eucharist from the beginning. It is the finalization of the baptismal.7 6 Benko, Meaning of Sanctorum Communio, 87. 7 Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 427, 722. 19 Understanding the Communion 20 Origin and Development The creeds of the East, viz., Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem (c.350-366 AD), 8the Syrian Creed/Apostolical Constitution (4th. century),9 and finally, the Nicene Creed (381/451 AD), which would in time replace all the local creeds as the common creed, are consistent in objectivity and design of the significance of “one Baptism.”10 It is sacramental. Sacramentally, from their fallen state as the children of God by sin, the catechumens are assured of the benefits of a second birth with a sign of resurrection and life everlasting by becoming a new person in Christ.11 This declaration of “one Baptism” in Greek always has been the central tenet of Christianity. This faith in the sacrament corresponds with its Latin counterpart sanctorum communionem in the West. The Latin creeds follow a structure almost identical with the East beginning with the fourth century’s Jerome’s Symbol, 12 Niceta’s Creed,13 the “Baptismum Salutare” in the Spanish Priscillian Creed and the Gallican Creed (503/543).14 The sanctorum communionem replaces one Baptism in the East. 8 Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 184. 9 Kelly, Early Christian Creeds,186. 10 Anthony W. Keaty, “Nicene Creed,” in Encyclopedia of Catholicism, 917. 11 Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church, 527. 12 Badcock, History of the Creeds, 76; Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 388–389. 13 Badcock, History of the Creeds, 76; Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 385–388. 14 Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder (eds.), Documents of the Christian Church (Oxford, UK: 2011), 26. 21 Understanding the Communion Of crucial significance is the similarity of the two universal creeds of the Church, the Nicene Creed of the East, and the Apostles’ Creed of the West. Importantly is the corresponding relationship in structure and objectivity right across their Articles of Faith of both these creeds. Rufinus (345-410 AD), the bishop of Aquileia in Northern Italy, in fact preferred the Aquilien Creed only because it was virtually identical to the Old Roman Creed (the predecessor of today’s Apostles’ Creed). Scholarship conjectures that the current Creed represents either the original text of the Roman creed or at any rate as an alternative Greek text designed for Greek-speaking catechumens.15 The final or complete edition of the current Apostles’ Creed in Latin can be dated to eighth century and probably originated in France, before being universalized in Rome. 16 Both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed are used alternatively before the celebration