This article presents the theology of the Orthodox theologian Nikolai Afanasiev, who calls the Church, the Church of the Holy Spirit. The Church, as Afanasiev expresses it, "lives and acts through the [Holy] Spirit", so the Holy Spirit is its true inner principle. For Afanasiev, all the baptized are called to the Holy Priesthood. He recognizes the love and witness of Christ as paramount for the Church, before ecclesial power and its law. In this sense, Afanasiev's position differs from the prevailing understanding of the Church in the two common traditions of the West and the East, which often regard the Church as subject to the conditions and necessities of the law.

Enthalten in:
Evangelische Theologie; 2020/3 Zweimonatsschrift (2020)

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Serie / Reihe: Evangelische Theologie

Personen: Avakian, Sylvie

Schlagwörter: Orthodoxe Kirche Ekklesiologie Priestertum aller Gläubigen Eucharistie Afanas'ev, Nikolaj N.