There must be many sources where one can learn more about the Robber Council of Ephesus which took place in 449. Just two years prior to the Council of Chalcedon, that great bastion of orthodox Christianity, I had heard murmurs of a different sort of council that did not shine the truth so brightly.
At the same time, I had heard of a book in defense of the papacy by Vladimir Soloviev, who inspired Dostoyevsky to create the character of Alyosha Karamazov. Soloviev's thoughts on the Catholic Church led him to leave the Russian Orthodox Church, and while some say he recanted of his Catholicism on his death bed, Catholics have regarded his writings on Rome as among the most powerful defenses of Rome.
His work was edited and translated into English, and subsequently published as "The Russian Church and the Papacy", which you can order online here.
As I will explain in more detail, it was this book that led me to hear the first echo of a cry that cannot be silenced. Indeed, it was not silenced, and its forcefulness was able to silence the heretical cries of its day.
1 comment:
Soloviev's work as published by Ignatius is a must-read for people wrestling with Catholicism. I'm glad you've read it -- it helped me a long way to dropping my insecurity about the papacy, and helped me focus my thoughts on the Western Apostolic Church's claims over the Eastern (I read this in combination with Ware's "The Orthodox Church", and came to believe there are systemic flaws in Orthodoxy's authority structure).
Peace in Christ,
Thos.
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