On the Church׃ Select Treatises - PPS#32
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Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Allen Brent
Volume I of a 2-volume Set
St Cyprian, third-century bishop of Carthage, developed a theory of church unity almost universally accepted up to the European Reformation: to be a member of the Body of Christ you needed to be in communion with a priest who was in communion with a bishop who in turn was in communion with all other bishops in the world. But, how could you discern who was a legitimate bishop? And, on what kind of issue would it be right to break off communion? Additionally, could self-authenticating ministries, like those of martyrs and confessors who had suffered for the faith, supersede this order? Finally, did the Church need, and in what form, a universal bishop who could guarantee the integrity of the network of bishops?
St Cyprian wrestled with these questions in his letters and treatises, selected and translated in these companion volumes. Each volume contains an introduction to the two principal controversies that spurred St Cyprian to write his defense on church unity: first, the readmission to the Eucharist of those Christians who had lapsed or fallen in the persecution under Emperor Decius; and second, the sacramental validity of baptism in heretical and schismatic communities.
They are questions that continue to arise in various forms in the contemporary Church, and thus, these companion volumes are of ultimate value to the state of current Christendom.
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 186
Dimensions (l × w × h): 18.4 cm × 12.7 cm × 1.3 cm
ISBN: 0‒88141‒312‒7
ISBN: 978‒0‒88141‒312‒0
St Cyprian of Carthage
Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Allen Brent
A volume of On the Church
Number 32 of Popular Patristics Series
“Cyprian was the great publicist who argued his theory of church unity with such success that it achieved almost universal acceptance before the European Reformation. To be a member of the Church that is the body of Christ you needed to be in communion with a priest who was in communion with a bishop who in turn was in communion with all other bishops in the world. But how could you tell or decide? And on what kind of issue would it be right for dioceses to break off communion with each other, or to threaten to do so? Were there not other kinds of self-authenticating ministries, like those of martyrs and confessors who had suffered for the Faith? And did the Church not need, and in what form, a universal bishop who could guarantee the integrity of the network of bishops? These were the questions with which Cyprian wrestled and to which he sought to give answers in his selected works translated in this book and in its companion volume, On the Church: Select Letters.... They are questions that continue to be asked in the contemporary Church.”
—“Preface”
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
§1 The Life of Cyprian
§2 Cyprian’s Controversies
§2.1 Absolution of the Fallen in Persecution
§2.2 Baptism in Heresy or Schism
§3 Cyprian on the Church
§4 Cyprian and Papal Primacy
§5 Issues of Text and Translation
§5.1 The Latin Edition
§5.2 English Translations
§5.3 The Textual Tradition
THE STRUGGLE WITH PAGANISM
§1 To Donatus
§2 To Demetrian
CHURCH ORDER AND DISCIPLINE
§1 The Fallen (De lapsis)
§2 The Unity of the Catholic Church (De catholicae ecclesiae unitate)
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