Loading…

On the Church: Select Treatises is unavailable, but you can change that!

St. Cyprian, third-century bishop of Carthage, developed a theory of church unity almost universally accepted up to the European Reformation: to be a member of the Body of Christ you needed to be in communion with a priest who was in communion with a bishop who in turn was in communion with all other bishops in the world. But, how could you discern who was a legitimate bishop? And, on what kind...

ideal that leaves its final impress upon his theology, to which his scriptural exegesis is subservient. For Cyprian there can be no salvation outside the Church as he has theologically defined it. For him Novatian can be no valid bishop because, cut off from the network of bishops in mutual recognition and intercommunion, he has no organic link either with the forgiveness or with the grace given to the Church in Mt 16:18 and Jn 20:22–23. Novatian and his presbyters cannot celebrate a valid Eucharist
Page 38
Buy this book at Logos.com