{"id":2623,"date":"2014-04-02T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/orthodoxyandheterodoxy\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2014-04-02T08:00:23","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T12:00:23","slug":"ecumenism-of-fr-georges-florovsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/orthodoxyandheterodoxy\/2014\/04\/02\/ecumenism-of-fr-georges-florovsky\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ecumenism of Fr. Georges Florovsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"florovsky-cockburn-visserhooft\"<\/p>\n

A short piece on the ecumenism of Fr. Georges Florovsky<\/a> has been written by Florovsky scholars Fr. Matthew Baker and Seraphim Danckaert and published in Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for Theological Education<\/i>. It’s brief but fascinating it its detail. Here are a few highlights:<\/p>\n

Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) was the leading architect of Orthodox ecumenism in the 20th century. He combined magnanimity towards non-Orthodox with staunch adherence to patristic Orthodoxy, exhibiting the courage to challenge any interlocutor, whether Orthodox hierarch or WCC secretary general. Florovsky maintained lasting ecumenical commitments, but warned against any ecumenical endeavor that would settle for doctrinal minimalism or privilege common action over theological confrontation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Florovsky\u2019s account, the main ecumenical problem is the \u201cparadox\u201d of schism. The Church is one \u2014 the Christian world lies in division. Faith in Jesus as God and Savior creates a real ontological<\/i> bond. Yet the divisions are no less ontological \u2014 marking separations, not only in love and creed, but the very experience of faith. In the phrase \u201cseparated brethren,\u201d the adjective weighs as heavily as the noun. True ecumenism demands a \u201ctheology of the abnormal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Florovsky pushed the ecumenical conversation towards ecclesiology, he underscores nonetheless that existing divisions concern the whole of faith, involving doctrines of God, Christ, Mary, man and \u2014 not least \u2014 the understanding of history implied in these. Florovsky observes a certain \u201chyper-historicism\u201d in Roman Christological consciousness \u2014 as if the Ascension marked Christ\u2019s exit from history, leaving his deputy behind to govern.<\/p>\n

In Protestantism, conversely, Florovsky detects a \u201chyper-eschatological\u201d reduction of history: human striving is undervalued; sacraments become nearly Old Testament signs; the Church\u2019s historic visibility is not fully recognized. The Reformation divorce of \u201cJerusalem\u201d from \u201cAthens\u201d marks yet another departure. It was in defending Christian metaphysics against the perceived fideism of early dialectical theologians that Florovsky introduced his call for return to the \u201cChristianized Hellenism\u201d of the Fathers of both East and West.<\/p>\n

Florovsky regarded the recovery of patristic theology as ecumenically crucial. It is in this light that his 1937 masterwork, Puti Russkogo Bogoslovija<\/i> \u2014 a book meant for Russian readers, which Florovsky intended to revise for translation \u2014 must be understood. His sharp critique of Westernizing \u201cpseudomorphosis\u201d was aimed, not at the West per se, but at a Russian theology alienated from its own liturgical sources and unmoored from its roots in patristic theology, as well as a spirit of \u201cservile imitation\u201d that made real ecumenical confrontation impossible. Florovsky\u2019s alternative is not isolation, but \u201cfree encounter with the West\u201d \u2014 conducted on the common recovered ground of patristic and classical conciliar theology, which Orthodoxy claims as her own. It was this vision that accompanied his concepts of \u201cneo-patristic synthesis\u201d and \u201cecumenism in time\u201d which, he stressed, were closely correlated. <\/p>\n

\u201cEcumenism in time\u201d searches the shared past of apostolic tradition, seeking recovery of a \u201ccommon mind.\u201d Florovsky celebrated the decision of Lund 1952 to retire the confessional method of \u201ccomparative theology\u201d in favor of this more historical approach. Florovsky\u2019s goal, however, is \u201cecumenical synthesis,\u201d rooted in the Fathers but responsive to questions surrounding present divisions. Such synthesis presumes discrimination: not every belief can be reconciled. Agreement in truth requires conversion, response to a divine gift. The Orthodox uniquely remind all Christians of the faith of the \u201cundivided Church.\u201d Culturally speaking, however, the East too is a
\n\u201cfragment\u201d and must also enlarge its theological vision, avoiding exaggerating local particularities. Christian unity understood as \u201cuniversal conversion to Orthodoxy\u201d entails neither submission to the East nor rigid uniformity, but rather \u201cagreement with all the ages\u201d and \u201cmutual acknowledgement in the truth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short piece on the ecumenism of Fr. Georges Florovsky has been written by Florovsky scholars Fr. Matthew Baker and Seraphim Danckaert and published in Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for Theological Education. It’s brief but fascinating it its detail. Here are a few highlights: Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) was the leading architect of Orthodox ecumenism in the 20th century. He combined magnanimity\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[128,163,229,320],"class_list":["post-2623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecclesiology","category-inter-christian","tag-ecumenism","tag-georges-florovsky","tag-matthew-baker","tag-seraphim-danckaert"],"yoast_head":"The Ecumenism of Fr. 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