mid-19th century

Khomiakov and the Slavophiles: sobornost

Alexei Khomiakov, influenced by Hegel and Schelling, sought to present Russian ecclesiology as a synthesis of the Roman Catholic thesis and the Protestant antithesis. Catholics and the Kievan theologians stress the unity of the church, Protestants and the followers of Prokopovich the freedom the Gospel requires. The true Orthodox understanding of sobornost includes both: the unity of the Orthodox is such that it allows the freedom of the Gospel, for it is a unity of love, not of law, and therefore free. So the Russian church need not choose between the two Western branches.