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The Church Is One
A. S. Khomiakov, in Birkbeck, 1895
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Chapter XXIII. Mr. Khomiakoff’s Essay on the Church
[Circa 1850]
Introduction—§ 1. The Church is one—§ 2. The Church on earth—§ 3. Her notes—§ 4. She is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic—§ 5. Her Scripture, Tradition, and Works—§ 6. They are manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit; of faith, hope, and love—§ 7. The Church’s Confession of Faith—The clause ‘Filioque’ not a part of it—§ 8. The Church—Her visible manifestation—Baptism—Other Sacraments—The Eucharist—Ordination—Confirmation—Marriage—Penance—Unction of the Sick—§ 9. Inward life of the Church—Gifts of the Holy Spirit—Faith—Justification by faith, and works—The Church, but no single individual within her, is necessarily infallible—Distinction between ‘opus operans’ and ‘opus operatum’ superfluous—The law of adoption of sons, and of love which is free—Communion of prayer—Invocation and worship of the Saints—Prayers for the living and the dead, and also for those as yet unborn—No presumption in praying even for the Saints—The worship of the Church an expression of her love—The use of images sanctioned by the Church—The Liturgy—§ 10. The Church’s hope—The Resurrection of the body—The Last Judgment—Orthodox doctrine of grace—The distinction between ‘sufficient’ and ‘effectual’ grace superfluous—Faith, hope, and love are eternal, but love alone will preserve its name—§ 11. The Orthodox Eastern Church is the whole of the Catholic Church now living upon earth—The titles ‘Orthodox’ and ‘Eastern’ merely temporary—The whole world belongs to her.
HAVING seen the final development of Mr. Palmer’s views, we must now endeavour to ascertain those of Mr. Khomiakoff. They are admirably set forth in the following Essay. It is not exactly known when it was written, but although it was not printed until the year 1863, three years after the death of the author, when it received the sanction of the Ecclesiastical Censureship and appeared in the Moscow ‘Orthodox Review,’ it is certain that it was written towards the end of the time of Mr. Khomiakoff’s correspondence with Mr. Palmer, and was largely circulated in manuscript form amongst the author’s friends. It is now to be found at the beginning of the second volume of his works, of which some account has already been given in the Introduction. An excellent translation of it was made by the Baroness von Rahden with the assistance of Mr. G. Samarin, and published at Berlin in the year 1870, under the title of ‘Versuch einer katechetischen Darstellung der Lehre von der Kirche.’ References both to it, and also to the correspondence between Samarin and Baroness von Rahden with regard to it, will be found in the foot-notes of the following translation.