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This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the history and the making of the Coptic papacy in Egypt. The analysis reveals four recurrent strategies of representation that proved determinative for the cultural construction of the Coptic papacy in late antiquity. These include apostolicity, martyrdom, monastic patronage, and theological resistance. The results also indicate that during the 1st and 2nd centuries a rising class of Alexandrian bishops started to bring the teaching office of the church under their purview and later a rhetoric of solidarity with the martyrs emerged in the midst of ecclesiastical debates over the proper response to the threat of persecution and to the dilemmas raised by lapsed Christians.

This chapter reviews some of the learnings gleaned from the various ecumenical discussions that have taken place on the theme of apostolicity. It is shown that there is now a general consensus about apostolicity, namely: that first and foremost apostolicity is applied to the whole church and not just to some elements of the church. In general, all recognize the place of the apostolic ministry within the apostolicity of the whole church. It is also recognized that there is an intimate relationship between the apostolic continuity of the whole church and the apostolic succession of the ministry.

This chapter presents in systematic form Congar’s pneumatological anthropology and pneumatological ecclesiology. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the human person, Congar affirms, is a mystery that heals us from sin and leads us to a new level of participation in the divine life. In contrast to much of the Catholic theology of his era, Congar develops a corresponding pneumatological ecclesiology. The Holy Spirit is co-institutor of the church and principle of the church’s holiness, catholicity, apostolicity, and communion.

The conflict between Peter and Paul is explored and taken as indicative of deep‐seated conflicts within the New Testament. These, however, are not viewed negatively but as part of the creative process working towards truth, which is then seen to continue in the subsequent history of the Church, with heresy in the patristic period and Reformation conflicts alike benefiting the Church's search for the truth. The chapter then ends with an exploration of literary and artistic images of Peter and Paul and their relevance to this more complex notion of a discovered rather than established authority.

This chapter discusses the eucharistic ecclesiology of John Paul II. One of the most interesting points of his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, is the observation that the Eucharist has the four attributes that apply to the Church in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Although John Paul II develops only the last of these attributes, apostolicity, the discussion considers how all four ecclesial marks may be found in the Eucharist, and how they help us to understand the sacrament better. As an attribute proper to God, holiness belongs to God's inner being. For any creature to become holy, God must bring it into a union with himself. Meanwhile, the Holy Eucharist stands out as one of the most important instruments and as a sign of unity.

‘Saving truth’ is a more biblical and positive term than ‘inerrancy’ or freedom from error. Rather than being identified with biblical inspiration, the truth of the Scriptures is a major consequence of inspiration. It is close to the notion of the divine faithfulness and reliability. A progressive approach to biblical truth acknowledges that truth is to be found primarily in the whole Bible. Jesus Christ is the Truth, attested prophetically in the Old Testament and apostolically in the New. Ultimately biblical truth is something to be lived and practised. A closed list of inspired and authoritative books (which determine the Church’s faith and practice), the canon was constituted by maintaining the inherited Scriptures and accepting the New Testament on the basis of their apostolic provenance (taken in a broad sense), orthodox teaching (or adherence to the ‘rule of faith’), and wide and consistent usage in the Church’s liturgy and teaching.