Sasse on problem of interpretation on Petrine authority between Rome and the East

I've been thinking about the papacy since visiting the "Treasures of the Vatican" exhibit at the St. Louis Historical Museum. Sasse points out an interesting problem of interpretation between Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Matt H.

Ever and again it is said to us that the Holy Scriptures are not sufficient to be the sole source and norm of doctrine, because they may be variously interpreted. They must be expanded through tradition, in which the church provides the correct interpretation. But it is clear in this example that the Catholic Churches of the East and West have the same problem which, according to their opinions, Protestantism is troubled by its doctrine of sola scriptura. Also Rome and the Eastern Church face the same question of where the correct interpretation is to be found within the Catholic Church, and which of the contradictory interpretations is to take precedence. The Eastern Church recognizes a primacy of Peter in the sense of honor, because it finds this in the Petrine passages of the New Testament. It also recognizes that this primacy belongs not only to Peter, but also to his successors on the episcopal throne in Rome, because they find this view in the ancient tradition of the church, particularly in the Council of Chalcedon (451) [Denzinger 149]. The primacy of jurisdiction on the other hand, together with the infallibility of the pope, even when he renders a decision of dogma without the consensus of the church,[1] the Eastern Church rejects, because this doctrine can be found neither in the Scriptures or the tradition of the first centuries.

Sasse, Letters to Lutheran Pastors 58, trans. M. Harrison

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[1] “…such definitions of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the Church, are unalterable.” Denzinger 1839. MH