<span class='italic'>Roman</span> Catholicism

Lawrence S. Cunningham

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511800825.003

2 - Roman Catholicism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Lawrence S. Cunningham

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Lawrence S. Cunningham: Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana

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INTRODUCTION

Even though, as we saw in the first chapter, the adjective “Roman” added to Catholicism can be misunderstood, it is clear that it is the city of Rome in general and the bishop of Rome, known more familiarly as the “pope,” in particular that gives Catholicism its defining character. After all, unity with the bishop of Rome is the linchpin that guarantees the unity of Catholicism. More than anything else, the division of Orthodoxy and Catholicism is best exemplified by the fact that Orthodoxy is not in union with the bishop of Rome, the pope. Both the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church use the same liturgy ascribed to Saint John Chrysostom but the difference is that during the liturgy the Byzantines pray for the bishop of Rome and the Orthodox do not. At a more popular level, Catholicism is almost instinctively identified with the papacy. Even the popes themselves, in recent times, have acknowledged that the papacy is a stumbling block for other Christians.

It would be, however, the most naive idea to think that as Christianity developed there was already in place a full-blown papacy as we understand the papacy today. The papacy, with all of its claims of authority and the very central role that it plays in the Catholic Church today, is the result of a very long historical evolution.

Type: Chapter
Information: An Introduction to Catholicism , pp. 23 - 48

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800825.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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References

Bellito, C. M., 1001 Questions and Answers about the Popes and the Papacy (New York, N.Y.: Paulist, 2008). Popular but useful information.Google Scholar

Duffy, Eamon, Saint and Sinners: A History of the Popes (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001). Best historical survey in English.Google Scholar

Eno, Robert, The Rise of the Papacy (Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1990). The evolution of the papacy in the patristic period.Google Scholar

Kelly, J. N. D., ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Popes (London and New York: Oxford, 1986; revised 2006). Very solid historically.

Lampe, Peter, From Paul to Valentinus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2003). A scholarly investigation about the beginnings of the Christian Church in Rome.Google Scholar

McBrien, Richard, ed., Lives of the Popes (San Francisco, Calif.: Harper, 1997). Excellent ancillary information – a chronological survey of the popes.

O'Grady, Desmond, Rome Reshaped: Jubilees 1300–2000 (London and New York: Continuum, 1999). Popular social history of papal Rome from the Middle Ages to the dawn of the new millennium.Google Scholar

Steimer, Bruno and Parker, Michael G., eds., Dictionary of Popes and the Papacy (New York, N.Y.: Crossroad, 2001). Translated from the German Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, an alphabetical listing of popes with excellent entries on various topics connected to the papacy.

Tillard, Jean Marie, The Bishop of Rome (Wilmington, Del.: Glazier, 1983). A solid theological study by the late Catholic ecumenist and theologian.Google Scholar

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2 - Roman Catholicism

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