Soteriologiczny ekskluzywizm u podstaw uniatyzmu

Abstract

The article deals with the difficult and painful question of the so-called „uniatism”, and, above all, with its soteriological and ecclesiological presuppositions. A detailed theological analysis of those presuppositions, based on the sources, shows that in the unionist movement among Ruthenians, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, a considerable role was played, on theological level, by soteriological exclusivism, i.e. by a rigid confessionalist interpretation of the axiom: „extra Ecclesiam nulla salus”. Such exclusivism had permeated Latin theological thinking since the Middle Ages. It had also influenced theological evolution of the Uniates themselves. The Orthodox, in their opposition to the Union of Brest (1596) were not free of the same sort of exclusivism either. The process of ecumenical learning from the past may be a painful lesson, but it cannot be neglected. A regional union of Ruthenians with Rome had been achieved at the cost of another separation lasting till today. The most tragic side of the unionist movement was a break ef communion of the Uniates with the Orthodox Church as a whole. The real union of Ruthenians with Rome was not the same they were hoping for at the beginning. Its modality and ecclesiological consequences were imposed unilaterally by Latin ecclesiology. A clear witness to that was a slow evolution of their soteriological views. Soteriological exclusivism, often adopted in the past, led to many sterile polemics and non-Christian attitudes. The axiom „outside the Church there is no salvation” became tragic By its restrictiveness and confessionalist interpretation. It contributed decisively to the destruction of the ecclesiology of communion and, at the same time, to the dissolution of the theology of Sister-Churches. if there is a chance to solve the problem of „uniatism”, it should be looked for in a patient dialogue within the frame of the ecclesiology of Sister-Churches.