How Has The Church Changed Over Time Essay

The Church experienced a fundamental change in its nature and evolved from being a “witness to a heritage handed down to it” (Pottmeyer, 35) to also being a monarch “as [an] active shaper of this inheritance or,…[an] active subject of its own history” (35). This evolution from witness to a central juridical authority occurred slowly and certain factors including importance of apostolic churches, centralization of authority and credibility, societal changes and power shifts, as well as the development of the Church’s own self-awareness, contributed to this change. As the Church encountered these factors the paradigm of the Church changed, thus impacting the role of Church and explain how the shift from preserver to actor transpired (Pottmeyer,

Within this witness structure some bishops were held to a higher importance because they were bishops of churches which held the tombs of the apostles, such as Rome which held Peter and Paul’s tombs, “each of whom was more important for the New Testament tradition than all others” (7). “Peter and Paul had simultaneously handed on their faith as an enduring heritage for the Roman church and endowed it with that faith forever” (8), thus placing the Roman Church in a place prominence and “scarcely any other could equal it in significance” (8). This Church was also the only apostolic church in the West, and thus it became the “apostolic see” (8). Rome was looked to as the “preeminent authority…inasmuch as the apostolic tradition has been preserved continuously” (9). The importance of apostolic churches contributed to the centralization of authority because Rome was seen as the model for decision making about traditions because it “remained untainted by heresy” (16) and “the true faith was preserved [here] more than anywhere else”

This necessity was established because the First Vatican Council “saw the Church besieged from all sides in an almost apocalyptic situation” (145) and wanted to secure the Church’s continuance (145). Continuance could only occur if the papacy was not just a witness, thus “preservation of tradition called for action to redefine the tradition as the circumstances may require” (Pottmeyer, 27). During this era the Church understood the need to actively shape tradition through decrees and laws because of culture and questions of the times (34). This power was given to the pope in order to preserve “the truth of the faith” (34) and such was developed out of the new paradigm of the church which made the pope a “monarch and lawgiver” (35). The paradigm shift of the Church greatly impacted the way popes viewed their responsibility to preserve the tradition and thus biblical exegesis was used to support the idea of papal supremacy and authority