The logic of church history: labor, triumph and kenosis

The present article continues our article “Te Meaning of History: Toward the Qestion of the Triumph or Kenosis of the Church”, published in issue 5 of Khristianskoye Chteniye for 2017. In this article, we continue to discuss questions related to the historical development of the Church. Te internal structure of the Church, which can be described using a static ecclesiological model of “man, community, and the catholic Church” (or, “hypostatic, synactical-hypostatic, and catholic-hypostatic” modes of existence), interpreted alongside the dynamic projection of history and the dynamic relationship between God and man, offers the key to certain mysteries of history. Te logic of church life, including in its relationships with the external world, is connected with this internal structure of the Church and its relationships with Christ and the entire Holy Trinity. Tis logic determines the stages of church history, where every era in the historical life of the Church - the ancient church, the age of the Ecumenical Councils, and the loss of the Christian Empire - has its own place, meaning, and connection with the wholeness of Church life.