Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!rutgers!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dragon!cms@gatech.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Apostolic Succession Message-ID: Date: 24 Dec 90 09:31:48 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Projects Unlimited Lines: 54 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , blosser@lrc.uucp writes: > What are the best available treatments of the question of apostolic > succession? Anyone know some titles? There is an excellent article on the Apostolic Succession, including Protestant objections and Catholic Scriptural responses to those objections, in the context of Scriptural justification for the Apostolic Succession as well as Traditional justification, in the "Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi" edited by Karl Rahner. For a shorter description, see Rahner's "Dictionary of Theology." There are also several discussions of the origins of the Apostolic Succession in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary. It's also discussed briefly in "Vatican II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents" general editor Austin Flannery, O.P. For the Anglican understanding, read Stanley's "The Catholic Religion." Good sources are Saint Thomas, Augustine, Irenaeus (not a saint in my book), Tertullian, Hippolytus's "The Apostolic Tradition." Another origin book you might to look at is the Didache "The Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles." A book that describes the origins and meanings pretty well is "Early Christian Doctrines" by J.N.D. Kelly. The criteria of Apostolic continuity is discussed in some detail in "The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)", Volume I in a series entitled "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine." Eusebius's "History of the Church" contains many source documents no longer extant _describing_ the apostolic succession with names. There's one book "A History of Heresy" by David Christie-Murray which discusses how the apostolic succession developed as part of the apostolic tradition to safeguard the Church against heresy. There's "Early Christian Writings" and "Documents of the Christian Church" which have original works by some of the Church Fathers listed above. For the Anglican understanding, you might want to look at Marion J. Hatchett's "Commentary on the American Prayer Book." You have to hunt for references but it's an _excellent_ book if you want to understand Christian theology in general expressed in terms of the Book of Common Prayer and why we pray, preach, teach, and do things the way we do. As an Anglican, as I mentioned above, I stand by Vernon Stanley's teachings, although not everyone agrees with him in the Episcopal Church. Nonetheless, as Stanley remarks in his "The Catholic Religion," pages 16-17, "A Church stands or falls by the apostolic succession." -- Sincerely, Cindy Smith _///_ // SPAWN OF A JEWISH _///_ // _///_ // <`)= _<< CARPENTER _///_ //<`)= _<< <`)= _<< _///_ // \\\ \\ \\ _\\\_ <`)= _<< \\\ \\ \\\ \\ <`)= _<< >IXOYE=('> \\\ \\ \\\ \\_///_ // // /// _///_ // _///_ // emory!dragon!cms <`)= _<< _///_ // <`)= _<< <`)= _<< \\\ \\<`)= _<< \\\ \\ \\\ \\ GO AGAINST THE FLOW! \\\ \\ A Real Live Catholic in Georgia Although not a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, I am: A Real Live Southern Catholic in the Anglican Communion.