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Neo-traditionalist ecclesiology in Orthodoxy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2019
Abstract
Modern anti-ecumenism in Orthodoxy is grounded in a sacramental or eucharistic ecclesiology which identifies Christianity and the church exclusively with the Orthodox Church and stands in opposition to universal baptismal ecclesiology. This neo-traditionalist ecclesiology stresses the unity of the sacraments of baptism, chrismation and eucharist as equally necessary for membership in the church, identified exclusively with the Orthodox Church. It exploits a weakness in Orthodox eucharistic ecclesiology, according to which the church, identified with the Orthodox eucharistic community, can be interpreted as excluding non-Orthodox Christians from the church. The article demonstrates that this anti-ecumenical, exclusivist ecclesiology is contrary to several major aspects of the Orthodox tradition.
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References
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31 Ibid., p. 184.
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33 Georges Florovsky, ‘The Limits of the Church’, in Gallaher and Ladouceur, Patristic Witness of Florovsky, p. 249.
34 Ibid., p. 253.
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52 Cyprian of Carthage, On the Unity of the Church, 14; John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 11. Cited by Heers, Ecclesiological Renovation, pp. 270–1.
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54 Heers, Ecclesiological Renovation, p. 279.
55 I am grateful to Dr George Demacopoulos (Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University) and to the reviewers for the Scottish Journal of Theology for comments on an earlier version of this article.