Conciliarism and Cathedrals of the Russian Orthodox Church (13th – early 18th centuries). Canon law

Abstract

An extensive literature of Russian secular historians and historians of church law, Orthodox theologians is devoted to church councils and the concept of "conciliarity". However, the relationship between these concepts is far from clear. It also remains unclear what collective events of the church can be considered a council. Methodologically, both should be considered from the standpoint of historicism, and, at the same time, taking into account not only the history of church law and church dogmatics, but also the developments of related disciplines, in particular the history of the Russian language. The author rejects the politicization of the first term, undertaken by Russian thinkers and publicists in the last century and a half. At the same time, he comes to the conclusion that the use of the term "conciliarity" in the symbol of faith in the 13th – 18th centuries and church councils, as such, legitimized the existing power at that time based on class representation. The author has developed criteria for attributing individual collective church events to a church council, and based on specific material has given their definition.  The article examines the contribution of individual church councils to the development of the Russian Orthodox Church.