Ecclesiology: The Major Theological Battlefield of Our Times Fr. Georges Florovsky passed away on this day in 1979. Unlike Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii), Fr. Georges Florovsky came from a family of “Russian Levites.” His father was a priest. His belongs to a significant cohort of Russian names, along with Sikorsky, Nabokov, Rachmaninoff, and many others, that were lost to their homeland because of the Revolution. I shall not attempt here to describe Folorvsky’s significance for Orthodox Christianity and beyond. Instead, I will focus entirely on his ecclesiology. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii) had an extraordinary importance in the pre-revolutionary life of the Russian Church. Suffice to say he was one of those behind the restoration of the patriarchate. In struggling for a return to traditional Eastern Orthodox theology from “Latin theological captivity,” Met. Anthony could not admit the possibility that the canons on baptism performed outside the canonical boundaries of the Orthodox Church rendered the acceptance of non-Orthodox without baptism meaningless. In his correspondence (1915–1916) with Robert Gardiner, the chairman of the Faith and Order Commission, Metropolitan Anthony expressed his thoughts that, when accepted into the Church other than through baptism, a person receives baptismal grace in the sacrament of confession or chrismation at the point of reception into the Church. The last letter to Gardiner was written in 1917 by Vladimir Troitskii (Holy New Martyr Ilarion, Archbishop of Vereia, 1886–1928). This “ecumenical” correspondence, posted in the Canon Law section of our website, was the “latest and greatest” in pre-revolutionary Russian ecclesiology. While acknowledging St. Cyprian of Carthage’s (d. 258) view that there is no Grace outside of the Church, Florovsky took the next step in developing Russian ecclesiology. Having examined Met. Anthony’s previously mentioned teaching on sacramental economy, Florovsky came to a conclusion that does not contradict the canons: the communities that have separated from the Church can maintain a connection with Her, preserving some of the mysteries that belong to the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” He thus pointed out the Augustinian dimension of Orthodox ecclesiology in his famous essay “The Limits of the Church.” Fr. Georges died on August 11, 1979, and was buried at the cemetery in Trenton, NJ. He was childless, and I have heard the grave was poorly tended. Relevent Link
Excerpts from Fr Georges Florovsky's Predicament of Christian Historian
Georges Florovsky: Excerpts from Two Letters to Alexis Klimoff |
