Talk:Ninth Ecumenical Council

The text of this article seems to exaggerate the division of opinion in the Orthodox world. I'm still wondering why the opinion of a few Greeks about these councils should be given so much weight as compared to the general consensus of the universal church. Do they offer any historical evidence? Why adopt Romanides' language as the standard? Fr. John

This should perhaps best be in the Ecumenical Councils talk page, but, anyhow...

There seems to be a difficulty (I've found, anyhow) regarding discerning what the "general consensus of the universal church" is on the issue of the numbering of the councils. Certainly, most Orthodox you might ask these days would say that there are only 7, yet in 1848, you have the 4 ancient patriarchates all referring to the "Eighth Ecumenical Council" of 879-880 in the Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs. My suspicion (and I need to do some more research on this) is that there was a Jesuit influence among the Slavs which adjusted their notion of how many ECs the Orthodox actually had, especially with their takeover of theological education in Russia, including all seminary courses being taught in Latin.

There are a number of instances in Church history where the majority at any given moment might well identify something as the "tradition of the Church" yet be in error -- infrequent communion is one example that comes to mind, not to mention the Arian controversy of the 4th century.

In any event, Romanides, Vlachos and Metallinos aren't minor voices -- most of the serious, creative and most influential theological work does at this point in history happen to be centered in Greece (not sure why), and all of these men are major writers and teachers whose works are standard in Orthodox theological education.

Anyhow, if you'd prefer, for instance, that this article be moved to Palamite Councils or something like that, with redirects and at least mentions of these writers' opinions, I'd be fine with that. I do happen to agree personally with Fr. John's assessment, especially since this series of synods in most significant ways resembles the first seven ECs, including having been signed by the four remaining ancient patriarchates. --Rdr. Andrew 14:04, 26 Mar 2005 (CST)