In class on Friday we talked about Irenaeus claims regarding authority and apostolic succession. Here is the introduction to an article I found this morning, along with a link through to the rest of it.
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Taught by the Apostles
What is the truth about jesus? ask those who knew his earliest followers, said Irenaeus.
by Fr. John Behr
“The Church,” wrote Irenaeus, “having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believed these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed one mouth.”
From the beginning, Christians have been urged to hold on to “the faith delivered once for all to the saints” (Jude 3). Yet also from the beginning, some people had begun to misunderstand or misinterpret that faith. After the eyewitnesses and apostles passed away, believers could no longer go for answers to those who had laid the foundations of the church. In every great city, different teachers and leaders claimed to represent true Christianity, each asserting that they maintained the true faith, each appealing to a body of apostolic writings.
To support their doctrines, some Gnostics were claiming a succession of teachers going back to an apostle. In the face of such authoritative-sounding claims, how could Christians know that what the Gnostics taught was wrong and what their own pastor taught was right? Whom could they trust?
Despite these contending claims, even the pagan doctor Galen (129-216?) recognized that there was such a thing as “the Great Church,” which was clearly distinct from the multitude of sects. Irenaeus of Lyons was the first Christian leader to write a confident statement of the faith of “the Great Church” and explain why it could be trusted. He considered three things to be inextricably linked: Scripture (both the Old Testament and the apostolic writings), the tradition of the apostles’ teaching (the Rule of Faith), and the leadership of the church.
Passing on the true faith
Today we tend to think of apostolic succession in terms of the laying on of hands: The church confers an office on a consecrated bishop, who can thereby trace his authority back to the apostles. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches each claim their own unbroken line of ordained leaders. Most Protestants deny the importance of a continuous succession of bishops altogether.
But in the second century, apostolic succession meant something more simple. Two main concerns were at stake: What is the true faith? And how has it been passed on from the apostles to us? (Click here to read more…)
I believe that most evangelical Christians today don’t hold to any standard of whether their pastor has a direct line to the apostles, however in a more subtle way we look to the one’s we believe are truth and seek guidance from them to who they believe are truth to make our decisions. Especially found in new converts, most people fear of being lead astray to another denomination or belief because of the lightly term of “Christian Author”. I think we find this true in the basis of searching for a home church; we affix our belief to a denomination and hold that what ever is put out by this affiliation to be truth. So even though we don’t look to a blood line, or a name trail to the original apostles we have designed our own creed of declaring truths within our denominations.
Josh, I think your application of apostolic succession to other forms of authority is on target. A denominational name tells us much about what to expect from a community of believers, however, what we expect and what we get are often two very different things.