Apostolic Succession

JUSTIN M. LASSER

Orthodoxy begins not with definition or argumentation, but with an intimate and revelatory encounter with its Lord. It is this awe-inspiring engagement that the Orthodox Church yearns to preserve in all it does. Whether it is like the woman who reached out to touch Christ’s garment, the rich man that went away in shame, or the disciples trembling before their transfigured Lord, the church’s primary function has been to pre­serve and hand on the “Tradition” of these revelatory moments, as continuing gateways of grace for his present disciples.

Plate 4 St. Matthew the Evangelist. By Eileen McGuckin. The Icon Studio: www.sgtt.org

The Orthodox preserve and enact the occa­sion of Jesus’ sending-out (apostellein) of his followers to proclaim the good news to all who would listen. Indeed, for the Orthodox, this “sending-out,” this mission of Christ, never ended. The term “apostolic succession” derives from the Greek word apostolos which can be translated as “a sent-one.” This term marks an important transition in the Christian experience. The mathetes, the follower, takes on a new role as one who is sent-out not merely to proclaim the Kingdom of God, but to enact the Kingdom of God; in other words, to bring the reality of Christ to those seeking. The apostles were not sent-out so much to prove the Christian faith as to live as Christ, teach Christ’s message, and to establish a space where those seeking might encounter Christ.

The essence of the apostolic preaching is captured in St. Peter’s paradigmatic proclamation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Mt. 16.16). This kerygma was and remains the substance of all that apostolicity means. It is this mystery and stunning realization that the apostolic preaching is intended to impart and enact. Because the apostolic mission never ended, the Orthodox affirm that this kerygma, this living proclamation of the Kingdom of God, was passed on to the successors of the apostles.

In the 2nd century the church encoun­tered a variety of novel expressions of the Christian faith which were, for many, foreign to the faith they were taught as catechumens. These circumstances pro­vided the stimulus behind the emergence of an ecclesiastical conservatism that was consolidated in the office of the bishop. This conservative ecclesiastical oversight of the bishops served as means to protect, preserve, and transmit the simple and profound Tradition of the Apostles. This Tradition was preserved in a variety of forms, including the Canon of Holy Scripture, the liturgical creeds, and the Eucharistic assembly. This tradition is not understood as a mere historical “narrative,” but a concrete historical reality.

The works of St. Justin the Martyr and St. Clement of Alexandria, among many others, demonstrate Orthodox appropria­tion of the wider philosophical vocabulary in an effort to proclaim Christian truth. However, when the “different” or heretical articulations of the kerygma infringed upon the experience of Christ, the Orthodox reacted immediately. These reactions came in the form of demonstrations of apostolic­ity. One of the first to offer an Orthodox response to alien or wildly innovative articulations of the Christian faith was St. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 135–200) in his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching and Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses). According to Irenaeus, his own grasp of authentic apostolic teaching was demon­strated by his relation (and obedience) to the teachings he derived from the martyr Polycarp in Smyrna, whom he knew and recognized as a teacher, and who had himself received his doctrine both from Ignatius of Antioch and from St. John the Apostle. This formulation of a lineage of known and revered authoritative teachers, which could be publicly demonstrated (as in the lists of episcopal successions of local churches demonstrably in communion with other local churches, all of whom could point to a commonality of spiritual life and teach­ings), was important in establishing what the Orthodox meant by apostolic succes­sion – that is, the transmission of the sacred Tradition from Jesus to the apostles, and from the apostles to the bishops, and from the bishops to the faithful in each local church. Apostolicity, for Irenaeus, above all meant consonance with the canonical scriptural tradition (what he called the apostolic faith); and a method of exegeting those scriptures where the historical con­creteness and open meaning were given preference over secret gnostic speculations.

Another important early witness to apos­tolic succession is Hippolytus of Rome (ca. 170–236), who wrote the Apostolic Tradition. Hippolytus bears witness to early practices of liturgical celebration, ordination, baptism, and prayers. Both Hippolytus and an early 2nd-century text, the Didache (or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), preserve a snapshot of the early consolidation of the office of the bishop and the church consolidating around the Eucharist. The early writings (known from the 17th century as the “Apostolic Fathers”) of the mainly 2nd-century theologians (including Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Papias, and others) also demon­strate the spirit of Orthodox apostolic suc­cession, exhibiting again the importance of the figure of the bishop, the centrality of harmonious inter-church unity, and the preservation of an authentic encounter with Christ as revealed in the canonical scriptures.

The Orthodox Church preserves, as an extremely important mechanism of its enduring apostolicity, the coming together of its spiritual leaders in council or synod. This process is based upon the archetype of the Apostolic Council recorded in Acts 15. As the apostles themselves gathered harmo­niously to debate certain issues that could potentially divide the church, so the later bishops established synods (the Greek means “to come together”) and from the 2nd century in Asia Minor there is evidence that this became a normal way of the local churches to ensure commonality of doc­trine and practice in the larger domain.

This practice of joining together to decide important issues is continued even today in the Orthodox Church. As heirs of the apostles it is believed that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit especially attends the important deliberations of the hierarchs gathered in prophetic assembly for the teaching and preservation of faith and good order in the churches. In this manner, the joining together of the successors of the apostles affirms the living experience of Christ in his church, an experience that is both ancient and contemporary. The atten­dant inspiration of the Holy Spirit is seen as preeminently present in the ecumenical councils of the church, to which the highest level of authority is given by the Orthodox in terms of maintaining the authentic Christian faith of the apostles in different ages and different circumstances.

While it may seem that the complex theological formulations of the later councils move away from the simplicity of the earliest apostolic witness, as given in the simpler statements of Holy Scripture, it is important to remember that these conciliar declarations (which make confident use of philosophy and subtle doctrine) are not definitions of the intimate encounter with Christ, as much as they are the responses to that experience – they defend and preserve that experience. In other words they are not new statements replacing the scriptural record of the apos­tles, rather they are commentaries upon the biblical faith of the apostles. They uncover and proclaim again in new ages the depth of the mystical meeting with Christ. The pro­fundity of the philosophical-theological language of the councils (introducing such terms as homoousion or hypostasis) serves to reflect the profundity of the Christ experience. Though this experience always extends beyond exact articulation in words, since it is greater than any words, and can­not be contained by them, it is nonetheless understood by the most simple-hearted

Orthodox Christian, even by the youngest child, who can have as authentic a faith in Christ as a learned sage. Everything in the Orthodox Church – from its dogmas, to its icons, to its liturgy – serves to recreate, reenact, and make real the simple, yet awesome, experience of the living Christ: the same Lord who moves in his church today who once spoke to the original apostles in Galilee. This selfsame Christ is the core experience of the apostles, and it is the experience which the successors of the apostles, the bishops, are entrusted to preserve. It is in this way that the Ortho­dox faithful proclaim every Sunday: “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” The Orthodox Chris­tians preserve and encounter that ancient apostolic experience of meeting Christ, while recognizing that this “meeting” is not only a matter of ancient truth, but a challenge and invitation made available in the present moment of grace: the Kairos that extends from the incarnation to the eschaton.

SEE ALSO: Apophaticism; Ecumenical Councils; Episcopacy; Heresy

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bakhuizen, J. N. (1966) “Tradition and Authority in the Early Church,” Studia Patristica 7 (TU 92): 3–22.

Behr, J. (2001) The Formation of Christian Theology, Vol. 1: The Way to Nicaea. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Irenaeus of Lyons (1997) On the Apostolic Preaching. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

McGuckin, J. A. (1998) “Eschaton and Kerygma: The Future of the Past in the Present Kairos: The Concept of Living Tradition in Orthodox Theology,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 42, 3–4: 225–71.

von Campenhausen, H. (1947–8) “Le concept d’Apotre dans le Christianisme primitif,” Studia Theologica 1: 96–130.

Zizioulas, J. D. (2001) Eucharist, Bishop, Church: The Unity of the Church in the Divine Eucharist and the Bishop During the First Three Centuries. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press.