Towards an Ecumenical Eucharistic Ecclesiology: A Comparative Study of the Works of Louis Bouyer and Nicholas Afanasiev and of their Reception and Impact on Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue

During the pontificate of Pope Francis, a renewed emphasis is given to the local church and its episcopal conferences. The Pope regularly insists on the need for a further decentralization of the Church. Hence this dissertation attempts to develop an ecumenical Eucharistic ecclesiology by critically comparing the works of the Catholic theologian Louis Bouyer and of the Orthodox theologian Nicholas Afanasiev. Bouyer and Afanasiev occupy a unique place among Eucharistic ecclesiologists since they systematically developed a Eucharistic ecclesiology in the Catholic and Orthodox Church respectively in the twentieth century. The first chapter deals with Bouyer’s Eucharistic ecclesiology and its reception in Catholic ecclesiology. The second chapter deals with Afanasiev’s Eucharistic ecclesiology based on his works and the reception of his theology by Orthodox theologians. The third chapter compares the Eucharistic ecclesiology found in the works of Bouyer and Afanasiev in order to develop an ecumenical Eucharistic ecclesiology and also investigates the impact of their theology on the documents of Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue.