Ecclesiological Issues in the Legacy of St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia: Reconstruction and Interpretation

The subject of this research are the ecclesiological views of St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia, particularly his central thesis on the «eternal and uncreated» nature of the Church. The aim of the work is to reconstruct the genesis and logical justification of this concept. Within the framework of this objective, the characteristic feature of his discourse — the direct identification of the Church with Christ, God, and the Holy Trinity — is analyzed, and the connection of his ideas with the ecclesiological constructions of other Christian authors is traced. The main hypothesis is that, despite the apparent paradox and novelty of the key thesis, his approach to practical ecclesiology (issues of soteriology and canonical structure) remains faithful to the patristic tradition. The relevance of the research is due to the chronological proximity of St. Porphyrios’s figure and, consequently, the insufficient study of his theological legacy in the academic environment. The absence of a holistic and systematic analysis of his ecclesiology in domestic scholarship, along with the criticism of some of his propositions in academic circles, necessitates this research. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it represents one of the first attempts in domestic theology at a special and comprehensive analysis of the ecclesiology of St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia.