Eucharistic Ecclesiology in the Russian Religious Renaissance as Instruction in Orthodox - Eastern Catholic Ecumenism

Abstract

AbstractThe geopolitical catastrophes of the first half of the twentieth century, especially the First World War, provided context for the development of Christian ecumenism. One of the first fruitful experiences of ecumenism for the Orthodox was with Anglicans at the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius. Sergius Bulgakov wrote of the spiritual communion that existed there, which recognized the existence of communion even in cases in which eucharistic communion of a fraternal nature was not yet possible. Afanasiev contrasted Cyprianic “universal ecclesiology” with Ignatian “eucharistic ecclesiology” identifying church unity in the sum of the local eucharistic assemblies in the Church, which altogether constituted the unity of the Body of Christ. The new term—eucharistic ecclesiology—became a prevailing paradigm among Russian diaspora theologians. Understanding spiritual communion and eucharistic ecclesiology, the eucharistic aspect of unity in the Church, as understood by theologians such as Bulgakov and Afanasiev, is instructive in ecumenical engagement between the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics.