Two Paths: Papal Monarchy - Collegial Tradition

by Michael Whelton

An ardent, thorough examination of the devolution of Rome's legitmate primacy fo honor in the ancient Christian Church into the ill-founded, problematic and divisive doctrine of papal infallibility. ? synthesize the welter and important evidence on the issue of papal authority.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Catholic, Religion, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

Michael Whelton is an Orthodox writer. He is the author of the widely received Two Paths: Papal Monarchy—Collegial Tradition, in which he examines Rome’s claims of papal supremacy in the light of the teaching of the Orthodox Church.

Reviews

[Brian Donohue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable, compact apologetics-style summary of the history of the development of papal supremacy and infallibility, and their contrast with patristic and Orthodox views on primacy and conciliarism.

As a former-Catholic-now-Orthodox, a lot resonated on a personal level: the tragic loss of the Latin liturgical heritage (a “catalyst” for Whelton, not a “reason,” to become Orthodox); exposure to the patristic understanding of key Petrine texts; learning for the first time about the checkered history of the development of the papacy, bolstered significantly by forged evidence... all steps that were crucial in my own eventual departure from Rome.

Whelton summarized and synthesized this evidence nicely for a popular audience. His treatment is not the most in-depth or scholarly available, but that’s not his point. Granted, the issues are more complex than his work lets on—how exactly to understand ecclesial primacy, and how exactly this was understood throughout the first several centuries of the Church, are problems that still plague the finest theological and historical minds today.

But where Whelton succeeds is in dismantling (for a popular audience) the simplistic narrative conveyed to many Catholics, and memorialized in the proclamations of Gregory VII, Boniface VIII, Pius IX, and Leo XIII, and more: that the Church always and everywhere accepted the thoroughly modern view of the pope as supreme and infallible.

Though it should be a thought-provoking read for any Catholic who has the nagging feeling that something has gone terribly wrong in the Church, this work also has some limitations. The brief (page and a half) treatment of the Filioque is largely inadequate to my mind, and should be ignored (though again, Whelton’s main target is the doctrine of the papacy). And again, the work isn’t meant to be comprehensive or scholarly. At times, his accounts of historical events are obviously one-sided and polemical. But these blemishes don’t ultimately detract from his overall synthesis of evidence.

I’d recommend this to Catholics curious about Orthodox objections to the papacy, with only a few reservations. It could be a nice launchpad for further study of the issue.

[Hannah V · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t praise this book highly enough. I have not read a more concise, practical book on the papacy during all my studies and research. Whelton starts from the personal side of things, realizing something was wrong from the changing liturgy of the RC Church. He then takes the reader through the journey he himself went on, through the conception of the Church with Jesus and His disciples, down through the ages until post V2. He covers Scripture, history, tradition, personal experience, modern-day occurrences, and more. This is an extremely readable, very comprehensive (for a non-academic text), reasonable, and compelling stand against the papacy.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was wonderful. Michael Welton's thoroughness in conveying the difficulties that the Roman Papacy has faced in the last 2025 years was nothing short of spectacular. this is a great read for anyone looking into Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a very well-written summary of an extremely complex subject. I think over the next decade we'll see more of this. One by-product of the information age is that we are no longer bound by what we grew up knowing, or books and papers written with an agenda that are designed to preach to the choir. The actual history is out there for anyone to read. You can find websites and books that let you read the writings of the early Church for free! You can follow the historical Church from Acts to the present day - a real, physical, living and breathing Body of Christ, alive in the Spirit.

Becoming dissatisfied with post-Vatican II Catholicism the author actually started researching on his own, only to find that the original Christianity he and his wife sought has been around all along. I think everyone that thinks they know something of Western church history should read this short book. I polished it off in one day, but if you wanted to linger over the details and research all of the conclusions it would be a rewarding journey.

Excellent!