The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

In his ecclesiological studies, church historian and canonist N. P. Aksakov attempts to restore the New Testament content of the terms “faithful”, “laic” and “the people of God”, with the aim of reviving in the Church the doctrine of the royal-priestly dignity of the members of the people of God. The term “layman” is not excluded by the scholar as being rooted in the church, although he notes its inconsistency with apostolic tradition. In his writings, Aksakov fleshes it out with a different meaning, putting it on a par with the concepts of “faithful” and “laic”. To be faithful, laic, laity is a vocation and at the same time it is a church rank. Ordination to this rank is performed in the sacrament of baptism, and the main characteristic of life is service. The service performed by the faithful raises them to the dignity of a member of the people of God. The Church is the people of God, consisting of the faithful, exercising the priestly ministry common to all in the various areas of activity of the Christian community: in worship, in election and ordination, in administration and in the church court. In the exercise of the ministry of the universal priesthood of the people of God, conciliarity is realized as the fundamental quality of the Church. The alienation of the people of God from the ministry detracts from the conciliarity and distorts the life of the entire church body. The experience of church life shows that the people of God who renounce their vocation are thus deprived of their royal and priestly dignity and risk acquiring the status of an “accidental gathering”. A Christian who does not serve God becomes uninitiated, degrading to a layman (in the sense of a profane or secular person) in his aspirations, the quality of faith and life.