The Church of the Holy Spirit

by Nicholas Afanasiev, Vitaly Permiakov (Translator), Michael Plekon (Editor)

Overview

The Church of the Holy Spirit, written by Russian priest and scholar Nicholas Afanasiev (1893–1966), is one of the most important works of twentieth-century Orthodox theology. Afanasiev was a member of the “Paris School” of émigré intellectuals who gathered in Paris after the Russian revolution, where he became a member of the faculty of St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary. The Church of the Holy Spirit, which offers a rediscovery of the eucharistic and communal nature of the church in the first several centuries, was written over a number of years beginning in the 1940s and continuously revised until its posthumous publication in French in 1971.

Vitaly Permiakov's lucid translation and Michael Plekon's careful editing and substantive introduction make this important work available for the first time to an English-speaking audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268074678
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	11/15/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael Plekon is professor of sociology at Baruch College. He is the author of Living Icons: People of Faith in the Eastern Church (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

Vitaly Permiakov received his M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and is a Ph.D. student in theology at the University of Notre Dame.

Nikolay Nikolayevich Afanasiev (1893-1966) was an Eastern Orthodox theologian who was ordinary professor of the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. Afanasiev was born in Odessa, in the Russian Empire. He fought with the White Russian Army, and then studied in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia before going to France. He lectured at St. Sergius for ten years before being ordained a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1940, whereupon he served in Tunisia until 1947. He then returned to St Sergius, where he served until his death. Afanasiev's great contribution to Orthodox theology came in his conception of "eucharistic ecclesiology", in which he sought to derive the nature and theology of the church from the eucharistic assembly. His work was influential on Alexander Schmemann, John Meyendorff, Dumitru Stăniloae, and John Zizioulas.

Michael Plekon is professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and in the Program in Religion and Culture at Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is also an ordained priest in the Orthodox Church in America and the author or editor of a number of books, including Hidden Holiness and Saints As They Really Are: Voices of Holiness in Our Time, both published by the University of Notre Dame Press.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Translation vii Rowan Williams Introduction: The Church of the Holy Spirit - Nicholas Afanasiev's ix Vision of the Eucharist and the Church Michael Plekon Author's Foreword 1 Chapter 1 The Royal Priesthood 9 Chapter 2 The Ordination of Laics 23 Chapter 3 The Ministry of Laics 33 I. Ministry of laics as a ministry of God's people??33 II. Sacramental ministry in the Church??35 III. Ministry of laics in the sacramental area??39 IV. Ministry of laics in the administration of the Church??57 V. Ministry of laics in the field of teaching??69 Chapter 4 The Work of Ministry 81 I. Special ministries??81 II. The apostle??106 III. The evangelist??116 IV. The prophet??119 V. The teacher??129 Chapter 5 "Those who preside in the Lord" 133 I. "All things should be done decently and in order"??133 II. The presider??136 III. Bishop-presbyters in the New Testament writings??147 IV. Origin and meaning of the terms "presbyter" and "bishop"??158 V. The ministry of assistance??165 Chapter 6 "The one who offers thankgiving" 169 I. The problem of the origin of bishop-presbyters??169 II. Jewish and Christian chaburah??173 III. The "Seven" of the Jerusalem Church and their ministry??177 IV. -Evidence from early Christian literature concerning the senior presbyter??191 V. The ministry of the senior presbyter??202 VI. The ordination of the senior presbyter??204 VII. The deposition of the senior presbtyer and his replacement??209 Chapter 7 The Bishop 217 I. The bishop as a successor to the senior presbyter??217 II. The high priestly ministry of the bishop??220 III. -Changes in church life caused by the transition from senior presbyter to bishop??237 IV. Apostolic succession??241 Chapter 8 The Power of Love 255 Notes 277 Index 315

Editorial Reviews

In a work that is scholarly yet accessible to the educated layperson, the late Afanasiev (1893-1966, St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary, Paris), Russian-born Orthodox priest and theologian, considers the evolution of the office of bishop in the Christian church. He argues that the current Western teaching on the office of bishop is one based on scholastic theology, which corrupted the original understanding of the role of the bishop, and ignores the role of the communal and charismatic in the early church. Afanasiev argues that bishops were ordained because it was recognized that the Holy Spirit had already chosen them. He meticulously makes his argument, examining and explaining biblical and early church texts. The chief presbyter (later called bishop) was not set apart but was the presider at the Eucharist, which is concelebrated by all, not just the presbyters. He emphasizes the priesthood of the laity, a topic that is common now but would have been radical when Afanasiev wrote of it. Although completed more than 40 years ago, Afanasiev's book has a contemporary feel. Highly recommended for theology collections.
—Augustine J. Curley

Library Journal

"Nicholas Afanasiev is perhaps the most important ecclesiologist of modern times in the Orthodox world. The Church of the Holy Spirit is a very important book, a magnum opus, demonstrating that Afanasiev himself is undoubtedly a major twentieth-century theologian.” —John McGuckin, Nielsen Professor of Early Ecclesiastical History, Union Theological Seminary

“In a work that is scholarly yet accessible to the educated layperson, the late Afanasiev (1893–1966, St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary, Paris), Russian-born Orthodox priest and theologian, considers the evolution of the office of bishop in the Christian church. . . . Although completed more than 40 years ago, Afanasiev's book has a contemporary feel. Highly recommended for theology collections.” —Library Journal

“The Church of the Holy Spirit is an outstanding Orthodox contribution to the understanding of the Church. . . . [It] offers Christians of different traditions a valuable look at the one Church as it was in the first centuries and as it may come to be again in the future.” —The Living Church

“. . . [this] is an important part of the history of twentieth-century ecclesiology. Afanasiev's eucharistic ecclesiology challenged the scholastic theology and eucharistic practices of his own Eastern Orthodox Church, contributed to the theology of the Second Vatican Council, and influenced other theologians, including John Meyendorff and Alexander Schmemann, who studied with Afanasiev at St. Sergius in Paris.” —Worship

“[Afanasiev] was one of the most creative, original, and provocative Orthodox writers in recent generations. Permiakov's very readable English translation will bring a much larger audience to Afanasiev's insights and lead to critical engagement with his arguments.” —Theological Studies

"This felicitously translated posthumous work, The Church of the Holy Spirit (1971), is Afanasiev's magnum opus and it sets out to express his vision of the Church as the realization of the Eucharist by giving an historical account of earliest Christianity's 'eucharistic assembly' with all its constitutive ministries. The present translation makes a poorly known work easily accessible and it is therefore a gift of the authors both to contemporary scholarship, with its reassessment of Russian émigré culture and religious thought in a broad ecumenical perspective, and to the various churches indebted to Afanasiev's immense theological legacy.” —The Russian Review

“[The Church of the Holy Spirit] is a seminal work on the church and the liturgy which offers a rediscovery of the eucharistic and communal nature of the church in the first several centuries.” —Theology Digest

“. . . This welcome volume is the first time that Afanasiev’s seminal work has been made fully accessible to the English-language reader. Afanasiev was one of the major theological thinkers of the twentieth century. His training as a church historian, his strong belief in the centrality of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and his thorough grounding in patristics enabled him to be among the first theologians to initiate a profound renewal of Eucharistic ecclesiology, not only among Orthodox Christians, but within Catholic and Protestant traditions as well.” —Slavic and East European Journal

“Published posthumously in Russian in 1971 and in French in 1975, The Church of the Holy Spirit—together with other pieces in West European languages—established its author among the most significant Orthodox theologians of the mid-twentieth century. . . . In the present book and some other writings, Afanasiev was directly addressing problems that he saw in the current life of the Orthodox church(es). His criticisms are amply surrounded by a positive ecclesiological vision as he draws hints towards reform from apostolic and early patristic sources.” —Modern Theology

“This is the first time that the classic work of Fr. Afanasiev, originally completed in 1950, has been published in English. Fr. Afanasiev joins a line of Orthodox theologians who attempt to understand the Church—that ‘subject which is not a subject,’ according to Fr. Schmemann—beyond the standard, canonical, approach. His voice, in this edition’s English, sounds timely even now.” —The Journal of Ecclesiastical History

From the Publisher

"Nicholas Afanasiev is perhaps the most important ecclesiologist of modern times in the Orthodox world. The Church of the Holy Spirit is a very important book, a magnum opus, demonstrating that Afanasiev himself is undoubtedly a major twentieth-century theologian.

John McGuckin

“This is the first time that the classic work of Fr. Afanasiev, originally completed in 1950, has been published in English. Fr. Afanasiev joins a line of Orthodox theologians who attempt to understand the Church—that ‘subject which is not a subject,’ according to Fr. Schmemann—beyond the standard, canonical, approach. His voice, in this edition’s English, sounds timely even now.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

“Published posthumously in Russian in 1971 and in French in 1975, The Church of the Holy Spirit—together with other pieces in West European languages—established its author among the most significant Orthodox theologians of the mid-twentieth century. . . . In the present book and some other writings, Afanasiev was directly addressing problems that he saw in the current life of the Orthodox church(es). His criticisms are amply surrounded by a positive ecclesiological vision as he draws hints towards reform from apostolic and early patristic sources.”

Modern Theology

“. . . This welcome volume is the first time that Afanasiev’s seminal work has been made fully accessible to the English-language reader. Afanasiev was one of the major theological thinkers of the twentieth century. His training as a church historian, his strong belief in the centrality of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and his thorough grounding in patristics enabled him to be among the first theologians to initiate a profound renewal of Eucharistic ecclesiology, not only among Orthodox Christians, but within Catholic and Protestant traditions as well.”

Slavic and East European Journal

“This felicitously translated posthumous work, The Church of the Holy Spirit (1971), is Afanasiev's magnum opus and it sets out to express his vision of the Church as the realization of the Eucharist by giving an historical account of earliest Christianity's 'eucharistic assembly' with all its constitutive ministries. The present translation makes a poorly known work easily accessible and it is therefore a gift of the authors both to contemporary scholarship, with its reassessment of Russian émigré culture and religious thought in a broad ecumenical perspective, and to the various churches indebted to Afanasiev's immense theological legacy.

The Russian Review

“[Afanasiev] was one of the most creative, original, and provocative Orthodox writers in recent generations. Permiakov's very readable English translation will bring a much larger audience to Afanasiev's insights and lead to critical engagement with his arguments.

Theological Studies