how much authority does church have within christianity

Question 1

overview of different sources of authority

Answer 1

• most christians view god as all powerful & all-knowing
• means all othrr forms of authority are subject to him
• bible provides knowledge of god but god’s teachings cannot be worked out by reason
• bible gives authority to other forms of special revelation like religious experiences
• reason & conscience seen as general revelation from god
• allows us to understand the place of humans in the world & purpose for which god created them
• many theologians think conscience carries god’s authortiy (st augustine sees conscience as voice of god)
• church gets its authortiy from scripture
• each church has a body of holy tradition that’s part of their authority
• some churches claim their authority goes back to tradition directly from jesus & his apostles

Question 2

three aspects that each church tradition has

Answer 2

• pattern of worship & ritual
• approach to ecumenical councils
• its leadership structure & organisation

Question 3

map of source of authority in christiantiy

Answer 3

1 - god: primary source of religious authority
2 - bible: provides knowledge of god/doctrines & teachings that can’t be understood by reason
- gives authority to general revelation through human reason & conscience
- ongoing authority: to church to preach, teach, baptise, heal, different traditions have developed on the best way to do these things
- gives authority to other forms of special revelation: through religious experiences or ongoing work of holy spirit
3: authority of tradition:
- catholic: established pattern of worship, catholic structure & leadership are in the apostolic succession, stemming from the apostles through an uninterrupted succession of popes & bishops
- protestant: broad range of structure & unstructured worship focused on jesus & his word, strong preaching bible study & in most protestant churches the bible alone is seen as having sufficient authority for teaching

Question 4

great schism (1054)

Answer 4

CAUSE
- culture & language: 787 AD a huge argument over miscommunication pope said they wanted icons in their chuches to use as vechiles of god’s power
- pope & bishop of constantinople had huge arguement over doctrine the filoque controversy - the ‘son’ pope added this as part of their law and orthodox sad
EVENT
- during schism during first crusade pope sent over troops to help orthodox christians but catholic soldiers took land for themselves
CONSEQUENCE
- orthodox & catholics are on better terms now, put behind the argument
- pope francis now has communion with bishop of orthodoc church