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The Church and the Pope: The Case for Orthodoxy
Today, the place and authority of the bishop of Rome in the first millennium has become a matter of great interest and importance not only for the official dialogue but for all serious seekers of the true Church. One such seeker is the prolific New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Spencer, who applied his analytical acumen to a thorough examination of The Church & The Pope.
From the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers through the Oecumenical Councils and the filioque controversy in the time of St. Photios the Great, on up to the Great Schism, all of the “flash points” of church history indicate the same conciliar nature of the Church as witnessed in “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
The whole “cloud of witnesses” give testimony to the truth of the Church vis-a-vis the post-schism papal the Apostle Peter himself and the choir of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp of Smyrna, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Athanasius the Great, St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Photios the Great and others.
Viewing the life and nature of the Church throughout the first millennium through the spiritual vision of these great saints, Spencer first walked, and now walks us, out of the weeds of innovation and division and back into the garden of the Church Fathers where unity and continuity shine.
From the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers through the Oecumenical Councils and the filioque controversy in the time of St. Photios the Great, on up to the Great Schism, all of the “flash points” of church history indicate the same conciliar nature of the Church as witnessed in “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
The whole “cloud of witnesses” give testimony to the truth of the Church vis-a-vis the post-schism papal the Apostle Peter himself and the choir of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp of Smyrna, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Athanasius the Great, St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Photios the Great and others.
Viewing the life and nature of the Church throughout the first millennium through the spiritual vision of these great saints, Spencer first walked, and now walks us, out of the weeds of innovation and division and back into the garden of the Church Fathers where unity and continuity shine.
114 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 21, 2022
36 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Robert Spencer
117 books330 followersROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of seventeen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Free Speech (and Its Enemies). Coming in November 2017 is Confessions of an Islamophobe (Bombardier Books).
Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He has discussed jihad, Islam, and terrorism at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He is a consultant with the Center for Security Policy.
Spencer is a weekly columnist for PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine, and has written many hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism. His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, Fox News Opinion, National Review, The Hill, the Detroit News, TownHall.com, Real Clear Religion, the Daily Caller, the New Criterion, the Journal of International Security Affairs, the UK’s Guardian, Canada’s National Post, Middle East Quarterly, WorldNet Daily, First Things, Insight in the News, Aleteia, and many other journals. For nearly ten years Spencer wrote the weekly Jihad Watch column at Human Events. He has also served as a contributing writer to the Investigative Project on Terrorism and as an Adjunct Fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.
Spencer has appeared on the BBC, ABC News, CNN, FoxNews’s Tucker Carlson Show, the O’Reilly Factor, Megyn Kelly’s The Kelly File, the Sean Hannity Show, Geraldo Rivera Reports, the Glenn Beck Show, Fox and Friends, America’s News HQ and many other Fox programs, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, CTV News, Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News, France24, Voice of Russia and Croatia National Television (HTV), as well as on numerous radio programs including The Sean Hannity Show, Bill O’Reilly’s Radio Factor, The Mark Levin Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Herman Cain Show, The Joe Piscopo Show, The Howie Carr Show, The Curt Schilling Show, Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, Michael Savage’s Savage Nation, The Alan Colmes Show, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, The Neal Boortz Show, The Michael Medved Show, The Michael Reagan Show, The Rusty Humphries Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Peter Boyles Show, Vatican Radio, and many others.
Robert Spencer has been a featured speaker across the country and around the world and authored 17 books. Spencer’s books have been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish, Korean, Polish and Bahasa Indonesia. His Qur’an commentary at Jihad Watch, Blogging the Qur’an, has been translated into Czech, Danish, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Spencer (MA, Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history in depth since 1980. His work has aroused the ire of the foes of freedom and their dupes: in October 2011, Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups wrote to Homeland Security Advisor (and current CIA director) John Brennan, demanding that Spencer be removed as a trainer for the FBI and military groups, which he taught about the belief system of Islamic jihadists; Brennan immediately complied as counter-terror training materials were scrubbed of all mention of Islam and jihad. Spencer has been banned by the British government from entering the United Kingdom for pointing out accurately that Islam has doctrines of violence against unbelievers. He has been invited by name to convert to Islam by a senior member of al-Qaeda.
Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He has discussed jihad, Islam, and terrorism at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He is a consultant with the Center for Security Policy.
Spencer is a weekly columnist for PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine, and has written many hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism. His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, Fox News Opinion, National Review, The Hill, the Detroit News, TownHall.com, Real Clear Religion, the Daily Caller, the New Criterion, the Journal of International Security Affairs, the UK’s Guardian, Canada’s National Post, Middle East Quarterly, WorldNet Daily, First Things, Insight in the News, Aleteia, and many other journals. For nearly ten years Spencer wrote the weekly Jihad Watch column at Human Events. He has also served as a contributing writer to the Investigative Project on Terrorism and as an Adjunct Fellow with the Free Congress Foundation.
Spencer has appeared on the BBC, ABC News, CNN, FoxNews’s Tucker Carlson Show, the O’Reilly Factor, Megyn Kelly’s The Kelly File, the Sean Hannity Show, Geraldo Rivera Reports, the Glenn Beck Show, Fox and Friends, America’s News HQ and many other Fox programs, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, CTV News, Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News, France24, Voice of Russia and Croatia National Television (HTV), as well as on numerous radio programs including The Sean Hannity Show, Bill O’Reilly’s Radio Factor, The Mark Levin Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Herman Cain Show, The Joe Piscopo Show, The Howie Carr Show, The Curt Schilling Show, Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, Michael Savage’s Savage Nation, The Alan Colmes Show, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, The Neal Boortz Show, The Michael Medved Show, The Michael Reagan Show, The Rusty Humphries Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Peter Boyles Show, Vatican Radio, and many others.
Robert Spencer has been a featured speaker across the country and around the world and authored 17 books. Spencer’s books have been translated into many languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish, Korean, Polish and Bahasa Indonesia. His Qur’an commentary at Jihad Watch, Blogging the Qur’an, has been translated into Czech, Danish, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Spencer (MA, Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has been studying Islamic theology, law, and history in depth since 1980. His work has aroused the ire of the foes of freedom and their dupes: in October 2011, Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups wrote to Homeland Security Advisor (and current CIA director) John Brennan, demanding that Spencer be removed as a trainer for the FBI and military groups, which he taught about the belief system of Islamic jihadists; Brennan immediately complied as counter-terror training materials were scrubbed of all mention of Islam and jihad. Spencer has been banned by the British government from entering the United Kingdom for pointing out accurately that Islam has doctrines of violence against unbelievers. He has been invited by name to convert to Islam by a senior member of al-Qaeda.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 18, 2022
Robert Spencer makes a great case against the definition of Papal authority given in Vatican I and Vatican II by demonstrating that in the practice of the First Millennium the Pope did not claim nor have that extend of authority. This becomes clear by citing the Church Fathers - of whom many Western Fathers - and placing their comments in their proper context.
Spencer demonstrates that many patristic quotations that are used to support Papal Primacy do not infact fit the definition of Vatican I and shows how Catholic apologists often misinterpret terms like "Apostolic See" anachronistically. In light of this evidence I find it impossible to uphold the Ultramontanist arguments for Papal Infallibility and universal juristiction as the Apostolic Tradition of the Church. It is evident that these are innovations originating after the Great Schism.
Spencer demonstrates that many patristic quotations that are used to support Papal Primacy do not infact fit the definition of Vatican I and shows how Catholic apologists often misinterpret terms like "Apostolic See" anachronistically. In light of this evidence I find it impossible to uphold the Ultramontanist arguments for Papal Infallibility and universal juristiction as the Apostolic Tradition of the Church. It is evident that these are innovations originating after the Great Schism.
September 7, 2022
This is an excellent overview and introductory text to the drastic differences between the church of the first millennium, and the Roman Catholic Church of modern times and serves well to highlight the numerous difficulties and mental gymnastics required in believing that the pronouncements of the 1st and 2nd Vatican Councils were dogmatic since Pentecost.
“Two Paths” by Michael Whelton and “The Papacy” by Vladimir Guetee are more in-depth examinations of the subject should one wish to delve further
“Two Paths” by Michael Whelton and “The Papacy” by Vladimir Guetee are more in-depth examinations of the subject should one wish to delve further
February 23, 2024
Fantastic overview of the great schism of the tenth century. Spencer makes an air tight case that Rome’s current view of the papacy is nowhere to be found in the first millennium church and that the position of Pope has caused more problems than it has solved. If you are a Roman Catholic or someone deciding between Rome and Orthodoxy, this book is a must read. I especially enjoyed how he laid out the contradictions between Pope Innocent on the subject of communing infants and how the Catholic Church operates today, since this particular issue is what lead me out of Protestantism. He asks a lot of great questions like: how does one know when the Pope is speaking ex cathedra vs not? How many times has the pope spoken ex cathedra and is there a consensus on this within the church? How come the Pope wasn’t present for several ecumenical councils if he has the ultimate say? Why weren’t the fathers afraid to rebuke the Pope in history? Does the Pope need an interpreter? What place do Eastern Catholics have within Catholicism when so much of their practice in is contradiction with the Latin church? Like Protestantism, Rome has systematic, epistemological issues that cannot be resolved. The only solution is returning home to the true Catholic Church, Orthodoxy. ☦️
January 20, 2024
4.5/5
Not a 5/5 cause I thought some of his arguments at the beginning were a little elementary or basic, but he does have very good arguments and developments as the book progresses. Lots of very good and interesting historical evidences against the universal primacy of Rome. I also really like how he used the very definitions of papal infallibly and ex cathedra given by the Vatican councils to show how through history these ideas have been broken and contradicted. Anyhow very good short and quick read :)!!!!!
P.S. it’s also important to note and I’m glad he did at the beginning and end that this book was made with love and thoughtfulness, not as a bashing of Catholics and their beliefs.
Not a 5/5 cause I thought some of his arguments at the beginning were a little elementary or basic, but he does have very good arguments and developments as the book progresses. Lots of very good and interesting historical evidences against the universal primacy of Rome. I also really like how he used the very definitions of papal infallibly and ex cathedra given by the Vatican councils to show how through history these ideas have been broken and contradicted. Anyhow very good short and quick read :)!!!!!
P.S. it’s also important to note and I’m glad he did at the beginning and end that this book was made with love and thoughtfulness, not as a bashing of Catholics and their beliefs.
August 28, 2022
Astonishing how few 21th Century American professing Christians know their early church history, eh?
This short book will give you factual knowledge on pivotal events in the first 1,000 years (or so) of the Christian church.
The church as established by her king, Jesus Christ, was and is designed to be administered by a coterie of believing bishops. Multiple, not single, note.
Read the book and learn!
This short book will give you factual knowledge on pivotal events in the first 1,000 years (or so) of the Christian church.
The church as established by her king, Jesus Christ, was and is designed to be administered by a coterie of believing bishops. Multiple, not single, note.
Read the book and learn!
May 4, 2024
great
I really liked this book a lot. I was informative yet short and sweet to the point. I recommend this book.
I really liked this book a lot. I was informative yet short and sweet to the point. I recommend this book.
June 16, 2025
Really good read for those interested in just some of the differences between the Orthodox Church and Catholics.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews