Ebook: Conciliarism: A History of Decision-Making in the Church

Conciliarism is one of the oldest and most essential means of
decision-making in the history of the Christian church. Indeed,
as a leading Orthodox theologian, Alexander Schmemann, stated:
“Before we understand the place and the function of the council
in the Church, we must, therefore, see the Church herself as a council
.” Paul Valliere tells the story of councils and conciliar decisionmaking
in the Christian church from earliest times to the present.
Drawing extensively upon the scholarship on conciliarism that has
appeared in the last half-century, Valliere brings a broad ecumenical
perspective to the study, and shows how the conciliar tradition
of the Christian past can serve as a resource for resolving conl icts
in the church today. h e book presents a conciliarism that involves
historical legacy, but which leads us forward, not backward, and
which keeps the church’s collective eyes on the prize – the eschatological
kingdom of God.