The Papacy: Revisiting the Debate Between Catholics and Orthodox

by Erick Ybarra

Publisher:

St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

, 2023

Overview

The Lord Jesus Christ intended his kingdom present on earth, the Church of God, to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Prior to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, history tells of the most egregious division in the Church between the Latin West and Byzantine East in AD 1054 and following. How can it be that Catholics and Orthodox share a thousand years of ecclesial life together in one faith, sacramental order, and hierarchical government, only to have that bond of communion broken?

Historians and theologians throughout the years have spilled much ink in recounting the causes and effects of this dreadful and heart-wrenching division, and among the many debates that exist between Catholics and Orthodox, none are as vital to the task of reconciliation as the subject of the papacy. In The Papacy: Revisiting the Debate between Catholics and Orthodox, Erick Ybarra examines sources from the first millennium with a fresh look at how methodology and hermeneutics plays a role in the reading of the same texts. In addition, he conducts a detailed investigation into the most significant points of history in order to show what was clearly accepted by both East and West in their years of ecclesiastical unity.

In light of this clear evidence, the reader of The Papacy is free to decide whether contemporary Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy has maintained the heritage of the first millennium on the understanding of the Papal office.

Key Features

• Examines sources from the first millennium between Catholics and Orthodox
• Shows what was clearly accepted by both East and West in their years of ecclesiastical unity
• Conducts a detailed investigation into the most significant points of history

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Historical Sources
• Chapter 2: Historical Methodology
• Chapter 3: Epistemological Considerations
• Chapter 4: Primacy in the Orthodox Church
• Chapter 5: Primacy in the Catholic Church
• Chapter 6: Development of Doctrine
• Chapter 7: The Papacy in Holy Scripture
• Chapter 8: The Papacy in the Pre-Nicene Era
• Chapter 9: The Papacy and the Emergence of Imperial Councils
• Chapter 10: The Papacy as Divinely Appointed Center of Unity for the Whole Episcopal Government
• Chapter 11: The Fifth-Century Papacy in North Africa
• Chapter 12: The Papacy and Early Relations with the Byzantine East
• Chapter 13: The Primacies of Old and New Rome
• Chapter 14: The Papacy and the Acacian Schism (484–519)
• Chapter 15: The First See Is Judged by None
• Chapter 16: The Papacy and Emperor Justinian
• Chapter 17: The Papacy of St. Gregory the Great (594–604)
• Chapter 18: Monothelitism and the Papacy (Lateran, 649)
• Chapter 19: St. Maximus the Confessor and Papal Infallibility
• Chapter 20: The Council of Constantinople (681) and the Tome of Pope St. Agatho
• Chapter 21: The Development of Papal Failure and Ex Cathedra Conditioning
• Chapter 22: The Quinisext Council (691–692), Imperial Supremacy, and the Papacy
• Chapter 23: Iconoclasm, Nicaea II (787), and the Papacy
• Chapter 24: Photian Councils and the Papacy (859–880)
• Chapter 25: Rome versus Constantinople (1054)
• Chapter 26: Comprehensive Historical Analysis
• Concluding Reflection
• Appendix: Donation of Constantine and Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals
• Works Cited

Praise for The Papacy

Erick Ybarra deserves much praise for this excellent book. As is well known, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are divided over the primacy and universal authority of the Roman Pontiff. What, though, is the record of the first millennium prior to the Schism of 1054? This book examines the historical details of papal interventions and teachings of the first millennium as well as affirmations of universal papal authority by saints recognized by both Catholics and Orthodox. It also discusses the controversial cases of Popes Liberius, Vigilius, and Honorius I, and it highlights the importance of the Tome of St. Agatho endorsed by Constantinople III. Ybarra provides a great service to those interested in Catholic and Orthodox perspectives on the authority of the Bishop of Rome as the successor of St. Peter.

—Robert L. Fastiggi, Ph.D., Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Jesus once asked Peter, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ But in recent centuries, Peter’s successors, the popes, have turned that question around to all Catholics and Orthodox, asking, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Who is the pope? What is the papacy? What authority does the pope have, and how far does it extend? These are enduring questions that have been debated for more than a thousand years. But this significant new study from Erick Ybarra approaches them with fresh perspective. Irenic in tone, thorough in scholarship, and fair to opposing views, Erick not only defends the papacy against new Orthodox objections but analyzes the more basic historical, methodological, and interpretive foundations underlying this debate. The result is an impressive tour de force, the new go-to book for understanding this central point of tension between Catholics and Orthodox.

—Brandon Vogt, Founder of ClaritasU and Author of Why I Am Catholic (and You Should Be Too)

Both Orthodox and Catholic Christians today have inherited a history and a theological legacy that we did not ourselves create. It is therefore essential that we deal honestly and comprehensively with those aspects of our history which both favor and challenge our own theological assumptions to identify the ecumenical path forward towards that union which Our Lord Jesus Christ willed for his Church. Ironically, the foundation and exercise of the Petrine ministry by the Bishop of Rome—an episcopal ministry whose dominical purpose is at the service of the unity of mind and heart among all bishops and Churches—has historically been regarded as the principal source of division, especially between the Chalcedonian Christians of East and West. Erick Ybarra, in his The Papacy, not only lays out the biblical and patristic foundations on this issue, he engages contemporary Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant theological scholarship and magisterial sources utilized in both dialogue and debate as a lens to apply to the difficult and divisive history of the exercise of the papacy in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods of Church history. What is more, Ybarra makes a compelling case for the Catholic theological position on the Petrine ministry of the Pope of Rome as part of the apostolic and pastoral architecture intended by Christ in support of a universal communion of a missionary Church of the Nations, as opposed to a mere federation of national churches. If the Christian Church is to once again bear witness to the Gospel to a divided and de-Christianized world, it must do so in unity with ‘the first of the apostles, the foundation of the Church, the coryphaeus [conductor] of the choir of the disciples’ (St. John Chrysostom) as embodied in The Papacy.

—Fr. Daniel G. Dozier, Byzantine Catholic Priest and Author of 20 Answers on Eastern Catholicism

Product Details

• Title: The Papacy: Revisiting the Debate Between Catholics and Orthodox
• Author: Erick Ybarra
• Publisher: St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Pages: 792
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• ISBNs: 9781645852216, 1645852210
• Resource ID: LLS:PPCYRVSTNGRTHDX
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-03-07T18:18:35Z

About Erick Ybarra

Erick Ybarra has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and a career in technology. Initially attracted to skepticism in his teenage years, he later encountered God while a university student and began to intentionally serve Jesus Christ as a Baptist Christian. After years of study, Erick traveled the horizon of Christian history until he found the real roots of the Christian religion in Catholicism. He spends a great deal of his efforts studying and working in the ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, especially on the subject of papal primacy and the filioque.