Necessity?

What is meant by "sinless flesh" here? Is it the same as corruptible? And is it to be identified only with the consequences of Adam's sin on the body, or is there more to it than that (e.g. effects on the soul)?

CWR: The Immaculate Conception Revisited by Dr. Leroy Huizenga

The necessity of the Immaculate Conception does not demand an infinite regress of sinless ancestors, nor does the dogma’s necessity involve ecclesiastical voluntarism. Rather, it’s a necessary part of the Catholic conception of the economy of salvation.

The Holiness of the Theotokos

The latest in a series dealing with the Immaculate Conception and such -- Eclectic Orthodoxy: Immaculate Virgin: Predestined Before the Ages

"But does assertion of predestinating grace imply that Mary does not need the salvation of Christ? Duns Scotus famously addressed this question in the 13th century and argued that by his atoning sacrifice on the Cross, Christ “merited to take away this most heavy penalty [of original sin] from his Most Blessed Mother.” Ahead of time, as it were, Mary is redeemed from sin by her son, the incarnate Son."

Scotus and and the tricky language of merit, as it is tied to a particular Latin view of atonement?

Germ cell theory and the Theotokos being purified through the contact with Christ, we have a problem -- the germ cells are not identical with the body of Christ, though one of them does develop, mature and become the egg used in the Holy Conception of Christ.

How is the Virgin Mary sanctified apart from Christ, without participating in Christ, if she is a woman of the New Covenant? A correspondence with the righteous of the Old Covenant?

Adam DeVille Interviews Fr. John P. Manoussakis

Philosophy, Theology, and the Search for Unity: An Interview with John P. Manoussakis

AD: I was of course especially interested in your chapter on Petrine Primacy, and I genuinely appreciated your direct but courteous disagreement (fn. 26, p.31) with my proposal (in Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity) for a permanent ecumenical synod, which I was modeling more on the "synodos endemousa" of Constantinople than the idea of a permanent ecumenical council which, following Zizioulas (with whom I agree) is indeed an event rather than an institution. Is there value for a permanent or standing synod around the one who exercises the Petrine primacy so that it does not become unilateral or unbalanced--that the papal "monarchism" of the past does not rear its head again?

That’s a good question. I think that the confusion here might be due to a certain equivocity. There are to different bodies that bear the designation of a synod: the synod of one particular Church, assembled around its primus or prōtos, and the ecumenical synod or council. The latter is indeed an event and not an institution and therefore it cannot be a permanent body. The former, however, is an institution and it is characterized by permanence. The difference is the following: the synod of a Church is comprised by hierarchs of that Church alone: a bishop who does not belong to that local Church cannot participate in it. While the ecumenical synod aspires to the maximum representation of all hierarchs of all local Churches (it is for this reason that no synod in the Orthodox Church has been designated as ecumenical after the separation from Rome). One needs to respect the difference of these two bodies, even though they both are synods of bishops. To create a hybrid third synod that would borrow the regularity of the local synod but also be comprised by hierarchs of other local churches, as in the case of an ecumenical council, is, in my view, problematic. Nevertheless, there is a point of cardinal importance implied in your suggestion which is the need to inscribe primacy within synodality (that is, the primus, even “the universal primus,” is always in reference to a synod) and, conversely, every synod (even the ecumenical synod) is headed by a primus. This principle, however, does not necessitate that the synod of the primus on the universal level be also a permanent synod: for whoever this primus is, he is also the primate who presides over the synod of his local church, and that is a permanent body of ecclesial governance. The risk of monarchism would be accentuated were we to grant to one primate the presiding role of two permanent synods at the same time, one of his local Church, the other of the universal Church.

Is the local or particular Church the national Church? Or the church of a "city," over which one bishop presides? Is it a mistake to think of the national Church as the "local" Church? I think so... especially when it comes to properly understanding the office of the primate (or patriarch) and the limits of his office.

Ave Maria

Post by Ordo Praedicatorum.