St Cyprian of Carthage and the college of bishops. By Benjamin Safranski. Pp. xx + 229. New York–London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2018. £70. 978 1 9787 0078 9

Abstract

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (d. ), was the most influential churchman in mid third-century North Africa, a martyr of Valerian's persecution, and a major influence on Augustine and other Latin Christian writers. In this monograph Benjamin Safranski embarks on a twofold historical and theological project: to explain what Cyprian thought about bishops, and how he and his fellow bishops dealt in practice with fractious clerics and with doctrinal deviancy; and to reexamine the reception of Cyprian's ecclesiology by the twentieth-century Russian Orthodox émigré and theologian, Nicolas Afanasiev. Safranski's analysis of Cyprian's episcopacy occupies four of five chapters. Chapter i focuses on bishops themselves, describing Cyprian's view of the episcopate, the nature and basis of episcopal unity and the practical means by which that unity was maintained. Chapter ii treats the episcopal college: Cyprian's conviction of 'the fundamental equality of bishops' (p. ), the role of a de facto provincial hierarchy and of Rome and (in greater depth than in chapter i) how Cyprian described the unity of bishops in sacraments, doctrine and what Cyprian called the uinculum unitatis. The next two chapters offer a two-part examination of what Safranski terms 'exercises of collegial authority'. Chapter iii analyses several incidents (above all, the Novatian and Felicissimian schisms, the deposition of the Spanish bishops Basilides and Martialis and the controversy over Marcianus of Arles) that saw Cyprian and his fellow bishops disciplining other bishops. Here, Safranski's concern is historical: to explain how the unity and independent Petrine authority of bishops worked out in practice, especially in those few cases that saw Cyprian intervening in other bishops' sees. In chapter iv, the argument takes a more theoretical turn. Safranski seeks to explain why Cyprian could sanction the deposition of Marcianus for his support of Novatian, and yet did not take so strict a line against those who disagreed with him over the rebaptism of heretics. Safranski suggests that Cyprian saw the consensus of bishopsexpressed in synod and 'strengthened' by Novatian's excommunicationas what defined 'the boundaries of acceptable Christian practice' (p. ). Consensus was lacking on the rebaptism issue, which limited Cyprian's response to Stephen of Rome. The lengthy chapter v shifts to Nicolas Afanasiev, whose 'eucharistic ecclesiology' led him to blame Cyprian for inaugurating a 'universal ecclesiology' that divided the Church into many local organisations headed by bishops and ruled by law rather than love. Recapitulating Afanasiev's thought with many helpful quotations, Safranski summarises its reception in Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, before critiquing it on the basis of his own historical reconstruction. In fact, Safranski argues, Afanasiev misunderstood Cyprian, who also exalted the local church and grounded the unity of the churches in lovebut a love tempered by a zeal for unity and for 'uniformity in certain areas' (p. ). The con...