Differentiated Continuity in Apostolic Governance: A Comparative-Canonical and Historical-Theological Analysis of the Western and Eastern Church's Apostolic Governance into Modern Legal Developments and Adaptations

This dissertation examines how the Church's apostolic governance, and the relation between spiritual and temporal authority, has been preserved, strained and legally encoded across Western and Eastern Christianity. It begins with the shared first-millennium inheritance of episcopal succession, eucharistic presidency and synodal consultation. It then traces the Latin trajectory toward universal primacy and codification (the 1983 Code of Canon Law) and the Byzantine and post-Byzantine model of synodality, patriarchates and autocephaly (the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches and modern Orthodox statutes). The central thesis is differentiated continuity. The Western and Eastern legal orders remain in substantial continuity with the shared apostolic heritage at the level of episcopal succession, local jurisdiction and communion. They have developed in markedly different ways at the intermediate and universal levels of governance. The study combines three methods: historical-critical analysis of patristic, conciliar and canonical sources; canon-by-canon comparison of the CIC, the CCEO and Orthodox statutes; and legal-hermeneutical analysis of U.S. church-autonomy jurisprudence (Watson v. Jones, Milivojevich, Hosanna-Tabor, Our Lady of Guadalupe). It extends to California civil-law vehicles (the nonprofit religious corporation, the corporation sole and the charitable trust). The author identifies the following original contributions: an integrated comparison of canon law, Orthodox statutes and U.S. church-autonomy doctrine, read against the Ravenna (2007), Chieti (2016) and Alexandria (2023) ecumenical documents; a four-way durability taxonomy of civil-ecclesiastical protection (constitutional entrenchment, bilateral treaty, bilateral charter, unilateral civil grace); six historical excursuses; and fourteen formal Thomistic disputations (Appendix F) testing the dissertation's own claims against objections. The work does not adjudicate first-order Catholic-Orthodox doctrinal disputes. It treats both traditions' strongest arguments even-handedly. Status and institutional note: This is the candidate's manuscript submitted for review by the dissertation committee. It is not a record of degree conferral. The Traditional Roman Catholic Institute of Theology is a California nonprofit religious corporation operating under a Verification of Exemption pursuant to California Education Code §94874(e). That verification is not state approval or accreditation.