Traditional ecclesiology in the coordinates of modern Western Christianity

Keywords: ecclesiology, Church, Christianity, Christian, Gospels, Christian doctrine, Christian modernism

Abstract

The main problem of Christianity in the early XXI century is devaluation of essence of Christianity and, as a consequence, erosion of the ecclesiology concept. Modern believer needs Christianity that would be adapted to social life, sensitive to social changes and consequently understandable, would offer the Gospel not in the ancient or medieval imperatives, but would be freed from the “dry letter” of outdated religious traditions and archaic church practices. Given this, more and more western Christian modernists come to the conclusion that today we should abandon the idea of traditional ecclesiasticism because traditional (historical) Christianity does not correspond to the spirit of our time. Neither the Church, nor even yesterday’s “extra-church” Christianity of postindustrial society, but now “non-church” Christianity with its different from orthodox views of Scripture becomes a real union of believers “around Christ” thus actualizing the Gospel into the discourse of modern humanity. However, such actualization is gained through the “modernization” of Christian doctrine – a revision of traditional Christian principles and content of the New Testament texts so those get modified and even get significantly distorted. The article describes the processes of transformation of Christian doctrine at the present stage, in particular, analyzes changes in position of the Church and ecclesiology.

Author Biography

Pavlo Pavlenko, G. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

PhD, Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Leading researcher of Department of Religious Studies of the G. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Member of Management Board of the Ukrainian Association of Researchers of Religion (UARR), Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of UARR “Ukrainian Religious Studies”

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Published
2022-11-04
How to Cite
Pavlenko, P. (2022). Traditional ecclesiology in the coordinates of modern Western Christianity. IDEAS. PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC ISSUES, (1(19)-2(20), 78-87. https://doi.org/10.34017/1313-9703-2022-1(19)-2(19)-78-87
Section
Philosophy of Religion. Religion studies