Ecclesiology from Below in Contemporary Orthodox Christianity

What is it about?

This article explores the way in which the Ukrainian Orthodox theologian and scholar, Cyril Hovorun, understands the church in terms of its nature and structure. He distinguishes between the essential elements of the church and the unessential ones by making use of historical-critical methods, as well as methods employed in contemporary philosophy. Thus, Hovorun argues that the structures of the church: its hierarchy, its organisational models, primacy and territorial boundaries, just to name but a few, are aspects that could be changed and even disregarded if they fail the Christian ethos and have no relevance anymore. Moreover, there is no structure of the church that could justify its authority based on special divine privileges. In this way, Hovorun aims to reinvigorate the theological discourse, especially the Orthodox one, which seems to be trapped in a pre-modern paradigm.

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