The Reformed Ninja

Cyprian’s treatise, On the Unity of the Church , is a fascinating window into mid-3rd Century Church dynamics. Written in 251, it immediately followed upon the heels of the recently enthroned Roman emperor Decius’ persecution of Christians. The persecution lasted for over a year, ending with the fortuitous death of Decius himself. Briefly, and without putting too fine a point on it, what caused the Christians to be persecuted was that they, along with all other Roman citizens (Jews being exempted), were to give ritual, sacrificial tribute to Decius, one which included the acknowledging of the validity of the pagan gods. Many faithful Christians died for refusal to comply, a good number went into hiding, and another number lapsed in their faith by participating in the sacrificial tribute.  Among those who lapsed in their faith, many sought readmittance into the Church. This created no small controversy, with a famous presbyter and theologian named Novatian famously speaking out aga...

Orthodox ecclesiology, which is to say the Eastern Church’s understanding of the nature of the Church, is necessarily and permanently exclusivistic. This means that, according to the Orthodox position, the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Church, which is to say an identity with the Body of Christ. Whatever calls itself church that is also not in immediate external communion with the Eastern Churches is therefore not in inward communion with the Church, and so not in communion with the Body of Christ, and, a fortiori , not in communion with Christ. Patriarch Dositheus’ synodal and canonical Confession states: That the dignity of the bishop is so necessary in the Church, that without him, neither Church nor Christian could either be or be spoken of. For he, as a successor of the Apostles, having received in continued succession by the imposition of hands… is a fountain of all the Mysteries [Sacraments] of the catholic Church, through which we obtain salvation. And he is, we affirm, as n...