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Paul Valliere,
RELIGION AND CHURCH IN RUSSIA AND WORLDWIDE
Valliere, Paul (2016) “Councils as a Manifestation of the Church”, Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 34(1): 10-50.
In this essay the author develops the theme of councils as living
ecclesiology, as a manifestation of the reality of the Church. The
meaning of councils is not limited to their agenda. The primary source
of their charisma is the fact of assembly as such. The conciliar
assembly manifests the essential relationships on which the Church is
founded. One of the author’s chief concerns is to describe how councils
help to shape the dynamics of leadership in the Christian Church. The
orientation of conciliar leadership is horizontal and inclusive, not
vertical and elitist. Councils are nodes of a network, not components of
a pyramid. The history of councils is long and complex. A summary of
that history is not the aim of this essay. Certain crucial moments in
conciliar history are mentioned because they remain enduring reference
points for the Church’s conciliar practice even today. Among the
historical moments considered here are the origin of councils, the
relation of councils to “catholicism,” the legacy of the Ecumenical
Councils, the Great Eastern Schism, the significance of medieval Western
conciliar practice for the wider Church, and the renewal of conciliar
practice in modern times.
