Fr. Alexander Schmemann och Kyrkan som mysterion

Abstract

What is the Church? This question has been asked in many times and places. In Sweden, it seems as if there's a general identity crisis among the churches. It seems like many churches don't know why they exist, or at least they have a very vague understanding of the full meaning of the Church. Some 50 years ago, we had a new encounter in Sweden. Immigrants from Orthodox countries came to live here, and they brought their church and tradition with them. We didn't know much about that, since our history classes teach only the bare minimum of the history of eastern Europe from the time of the great schism to the bolshevik revolution. This old church is the Orthodox Church, and its tradition and heritage goes way back, it is much older than that of the churches in Sweden. In fact, they count the Apostles as the founders of their church. Perhaps they can teach us something about the nature of the Church and why we should have it? The meeting of the two different traditions, the latin west and the greek east, did in fact give good fruit, not the least through Russian intellectuals, philosophers and theologians who fled from Russia in the beginning of the 20th century. They had an influence on the theological schools in the west, particularly that of the roman catholic ressourcement-movement, represented by e.g. Henri de Lubac and Jean Daniélou among others. One of the best representatives of this Russian intelligentia was Fr. Alexander Schmemann, a Russian theologian and priest who lived both in Paris and New York. He was active in the meeting of east and west, and he worked hard on figuring out how one could apply eastern religion in a very different philosophical and cultural context – the west. What he has to say about the Church is very interesting, and I think it may give some directions for the churches today. This essay tries to answer the question of how the Orthodox, primarily Fr. Alexander Schmemann, manages the meeting with the western culture. But it also tries to see how the Church is a sacrament in the writings and teachings of Schmemann. This is done by looking at his understanding of the symbol, the divine liturgy, and the sacraments.