Phenomenon of a Church Faction in the corpus of letters of St. Basil the Great
Abstract
This article studies the views of St. Basil the Great on such signifi cant phenomenon in the church history of the 4th century as a church faction. The article distinguishes macrofactions (group of bishops which is extensive and heterogeneous from the doctrinal and church-political points of view and united by the adherence to the heritage of one of the great councils) and microfactions (small consolidated group of bishops who share the same views). St. Basil includes himself into the group of supporters of St. Meletius of Antioch, to which he referred with a range of concepts, namely “synod”, “participants of communion”, “we”, “our Church”. The saint sought to overcome diff erences of opinion between the Orthodox supporters of the Nicene macrofaction and to exclude the heterodox groups (Marcellians, Apollinarians, Eustathians). He considered the confession of the Nicene faith and dissociation from the idea of the creation of the Holy Spirit to be the basis for a doctrinal consensus. In addition, St. Basil actively defended the doctrine of the three Divine Hypostases. He interpreted the Holy Scripture and the Nicene faith in the light of the liturgical practice and patristic legacy, thus revealing the continuity of church tradition. St. Basil the Great sought to return the terrestrial Church to its original state of universal orthodoxy and mutual love, in a certain sense wishing to integrate the entire Church into a sui generis microfaction, if by the the latter we understand the union of like-minded friends.
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