Ecclesiological Experience of A. Khomyakov

Abstract

The article analyzes the main feature of the work of A. S. Khomyakov, which is that his religious and philosophical thought was always determined not by speculative categories and logical conclusions, but by his life observations. This was manifested to the greatest extent by Khomyakov in the religious sphere, where there is an organic and holistic unity of the thinker’s personality, his life and his thoughts. The Church of Christ has always remained the center of such unity for Khomyakov. The founder of Slavophilism lived in the Church, and was not just a formal member of it. Therefore, the Church was revealed to him from the inside in its spiritual richness and in the depth of its gracious mysteries. Experienced ecclesiology helped A. Khomyakov understand the nature of the Church and its unity, created not by administrative measures, but by the grace-filled life of the church community, as a result of which the life of this community is likened to the intra-Trinitarian Divine life: «As You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, so too are they they will be one in Us» (John 17, 21–22). The article draws attention to the fact that Khomyakov lacks a systematic ecclesiology. The religious philosopher generally disapproved of all kinds of theological systems, bearing in mind that many of them in his time were influenced by Western scholastic theology. Initially, this sometimes caused a critical attitude towards Khomyakov’s ecclesiological theology. However, such criticism, according to the remark of Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, was superficial.