The Idea of the Universality of the Church according to Vladimir Solovyov

Abstract

This brief outline of Solovyov’s idea of the universality of the Church is an attempt to validate his individual view on one of the crucial dimensions of the existence of the ecclesial community in the world. The significance of the presented doctrinal vision follows from its focus on the ontological-historical element of the Church, i.e. on its permanent and unchanging component that finds temporal expression as a divine-human event.

It is on account of the principle of the universality of the Church that the question of its original and future shape on a strictly human plane remains open. Vladimir Solovyov was not afraid to engage this question, deeming it to be of basic importance for a Christian’s identification with his/her Church. With time, the special point of reference in Solovyov’s theological reflections shifts to the problem of universality in Orthodoxy and Catholicism, seen in the perspective of unifying Christians of the East and the West. Solovyov was the first Orthodox theologian to put forward a far reaching suggestion concerning unity of the two Churches.