The Problem of the Place of the Person of the Holy Spirit in Orthodox Ecclesiology of the 20th Century (on the example of Eucharistic ecclesiology of Nicholas Afanasiev)

The question of the place of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Ecclesiology is not a new one, but it still remains open. In this article special attention is devoted to the Eucharistic Ecclesiology of Nicholas Afanasiev, in which he has tried to give to the Person of the Holy Spirit an essential place, and to the ecclesiological ideas of George Florovsky, who in his theological constructions has been extreme Christocentric and has avoided to give a special place to the oikonomia of the Spirit. A particular remark is made also about the possibility of using the neo-patristic synthesis in the discussion (with special reference the texts of St. Basil the Great, St. Athanasius of Alexandria and Didymus the Blind).