Nikolay Nikolayevich Afanasiev (; 4 September 1893,

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

— 4 December 1966,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was an Eastern Orthodox

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

who was ordinary professor of the

St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute The St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute ( French: ''Institut de théologie orthodoxe Saint-Serge'') in Paris, France, is a private university of higher education in Orthodox theology. Founded in 1925 by a group led by Metropolitan Eulogiu ...

in Paris. Afanasiev was born in

, in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. He fought with the White Russian Army, and then studied in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (obtaining a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

) before going to France. He lectured at St. Sergius for ten years before being ordained a priest in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

in 1940, whereupon he served in Tunisia until 1947. He then returned to St Sergius, where he served until his death. Afanasiev's great contribution to Orthodox theology came in his conception of "

eucharistic The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

ecclesiology In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership. In its early history, one of th ...

", in which he sought to derive the nature and theology of the church from the eucharistic assembly. His work was influential on

Alexander Schmemann Alexander Dmitrievich Schmemann (; 13 September 1921 – 13 December 1983) was an influential Orthodox priest, theologian, and author who spent most of his career in the United States. Born in Estonia to émigrés from the Russian Revolution, ...

John Meyendorff John Meyendorff (; ; February 17, 1926 – July 22, 1992) was a leading theologian of the Orthodox Church of America as well as a writer and teacher. He served as the dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States unt ...

Dumitru Stăniloae Dumitru Stăniloae (; – 4 October 1993), also Anglicized as Demetrius Staniloae, was a Romanian Orthodox Christian priest, theologian and professor. He worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive Romanian translation of the Greek Philokali ...

, and

John Zizioulas John Zizioulas (; ; 10 January 1931 – 2 February 2023) was a Greek Orthodox bishop who served as the Metropolitan of Pergamon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople from 1986 until his death in 2023. He was one of the most influent ...

. A notable work is ''The Church of the Holy Spirit.''

References

Orthodox Encyclopedia
1893 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Eastern Orthodox theologians Clergy from Odesa Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Theologians from the Russian Empire University of Belgrade alumni {{Russia-reli-bio-stub