Papacy and Primacy

As I have had many occasions to note, Northern Illinois University Press has been rather unique among academic presses in taking a very good, sustained, and commendable interest in Orthodoxy, especially, but not exclusively, Russian Orthodox history. Set for October release is another book from them, this one with a more clearly "theological" note than in some of their past works, which have often tended to be strongly historical in focus.

I am very pleased to see that this book is going to be in print. I was one of the manuscript reviewers commissioned by the editors to determine suitability for publication and I very warmly recommended that they do so. At once faithful to Orthodox ecclesiology and to Catholic realities, this is a cogently written, carefully thought out work that deserves a wide audience among Orthodox and Catholics alike: Maximos Vgenopoulos (with a foreword from the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew), Primacy in the Church from Vatican I to Vatican II: An Orthodox Perspective (NIL Press, 2013), 220pp.

About this book we are told:

In this timely and comprehensive work, Maximos Vgenopoulos analyzes the response of major Orthodox thinkers to the Catholic understanding of the primacy of the pope over the last two centuries. Here Vgenopoulos brings together writings by Greek and Russian Orthodox theologians and systematically compares them to demonstrate the emergence of a concordance between the canons of the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Primacy in the Church from Vatican I to Vatican II is an invaluable resource on the official dialogue taking place between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church today. This important book will be of broad interest to historians, theologians, seminarians, and all those interested in Orthodox-Catholic relations.