Magisterium & the Trinity (AQA GCSE Religious Studies B): Revision Note

The significance of conciliar magisterial authority

• The Magisterium is the authority that the Catholic Church’s Pope and bishops have to make decisions about Church teaching

• This authority is called apostolic authority because it comes from the apostles, Jesus’s closest followers

  • The apostles were given the role of continuing to preach Jesus’s message after his resurrection and received the power of the Holy Spirit to help in their mission

  • Whenever they went to a new area to preach, they chose someone to lead this work. That person became a bishop through the laying on of hands, which symbolised passing on:

    • The authority of the apostles or apostolic authority

    • The power of the Holy Spirit

This process is described in the Church document, Lumen Gentium

• The apostolic tradition has been preserved and passed on from the earliest bishops to the bishops of today, a process known as apostolic succession. This was explained in Lumen Gentium

• Jesus chose Peter as the leader of the apostles, and he became the bishop of Rome, the first Pope

  • There is an unbroken line of succession of bishops of Rome from Peter to the Pope today (apostolic succession)

• The Pope and the bishops together form the Magisterium

  • They have the teaching authority of the Catholic Church

• Conciliar magisterial authority is when the Pope and bishops come together to work out the Church’s teaching in Church Councils

  • They believe that the Holy Spirit guides them in their decision-making at these Councils

  • Therefore, any official declarations of faith that come from these Councils are considered infallible, meaning they are without error

• The Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople are important, as they confirmed the Church’s teaching on the Trinity

Council of Nicaea

• The Council of Nicaea (325 CE) was called to respond to a priest called Arius, who taught that Jesus was not eternal, only God the Father. This was a heresy, a false teaching

• The Council concluded that Jesus was:

  • Fully divine

  • Eternal, just as God the Father is eternal

  • Equal in importance to God the Father

  • Of the same nature as God the Father

• The Council of Nicaea also stressed the importance of the Holy Spirit to Christian faith

Council of Constantinople

• The Council of Constantinople (381 CE) was held because there were further disputes about the nature of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit

• This Council confirmed that:

  • The Holy Spirit is fully God (“With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified”)

  • The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity

  • Jesus is both fully God and fully human

• At the Council of Nicaea, the bishops had written a Creed. This was amended at the Council of Constantinople to reflect the conclusions of both Councils

  • This is the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed, known as the Nicene Creed

  • It is the statement of faith that is still used by the Church today

  • The Nicene Creed is recited at Mass, and all ​​Catholics accept its content