I Confess One Baptism...: Interpretation and Application of Canon VII of the Second Ecumenical Council by the Kollyvades and Constantine Oikonomos (A contribution to the historico-canonical evaluation of the problem of the validity of Western baptism)
Protopresbyter George D. Metallinos Translated by Priestmonk Seraphim
“The debate over the validity of the baptism of non-Orthodox who come over to Orthodoxy, a very old problem of the Church, flared up around the middle of the eighteenth century in the see of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, during the reign of Cyril V beginning in 1750. The reopening of the problem by this Patriarch, who imposed (re)baptism of Western converts, provoked vehement disputes that survived in print as a very rich production of relevant literature. Hence this issue, together with the ‘kollyva dispute’ that broke out around the same time, theologically stamp the eighteenth century, otherwise relatively poor in theological interest. The question of how the (early) heretics were to be received was synodically resolved by the early Church through, among others, Canon VII of the Second Ecumenical Council. Therefore, it was reasonable that, in the solutions also proposed for regulating the matter in the eighteenth century, an interpretation of this Canon be attempted applying it now to the case of the later heretices, i.e. the Westerners in general, and specifically the Latins.” —“INTRODUCTION”
CONTENTS
Foreword Preface to the English Edition Preface to the Greek Edition Abbreviations INTRODUCTION I. The PRINCIPAL FIGURES 1. The Kollyvades Fathers of the Holy Mountain 2. Constantine Oikonomos of the Oikonomoi 3. Cyril V, Patriarch of Constantinople II. INTERPRETATION OF THE CANON 1. Ecclesiological and canonical presuppositions 2. Authenticity of the Canon 3. Interpretation of the Canon 4. Summary III. APPLICATION OF THE CANON 1. Latins are “heretics” and “unbaptized” 2. Latins are “in need of baptism” 3. Explanation of the Orthodox Church’s action in dealing with the Latins a) Until the Council of Florence b) After Florence IV. CRITICAL EVALUATION 1. The position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate 2. The action of Patriarch Cyril V 3. The policy in Russia EPILOGUE APPENDIX I Holy Canons dealing with Baptism APPENDIX II Oros of the holy Great Church of Christ on the baptism of converts form the West (1755/56) APPENDIX III (Re)baptism of Latins on the Ionian Islands in the Nineteenth Century About the Author By the Same Author
Item Number: BKSA834 Publication data: Holy Mountain, Greece: St. Paul’s Monastery, 1994 Format: softcover Number of pages: 143 Dimensions (l × w × h): 20.8 cm × 14.1 cm × 1.0 cm ISBN: 960‒85542‒0‒9
