“It would be a good idea to carry out a research project called ‘Theologians’ ships’…”

Abstract

A conversation with a historian of Russian theology of the Modern era touches upon the continuity of some key ideas that are characteristic of the Diaspora Theology of the 20th century in relation to the ideas whose origins are found in Russian spiritual and academic theology of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Contrary to the well-established opinion that Russian post-revolutionary emigration theology was a new, breakthrough phase in theological development, the author shows that such concepts as Trinitarian ecclesiology, personalism, theosis, kenotic theology (characteristic of this theology) in fact arise and form among Russian authors from the end of 1880-s until the turning point in 1917. The following specific questions are also raised during the conversation: the emergence of the Russian theological school, contemporary anthropology in its connection with the anthropology of St. Augustine; receptions of the Areopagite Corpus in pre-revolutionary Russia; the influence of Western theology, in particular French mysticism of the 17th century, as well as the influence of the latest philosophy and psychology for that time on representatives of the Russian spiritual and academic tradition. The author connects the peculiarities of Russian pre-revolutionary theology with the fact that among the Orthodox Churches, it is the Russian Church that is the first to find itself in the situation of the new time with its secularization, non-religious humanism and specific philosophical language. The status of Russian lay theologians (first of all, professors of theological schools, who belonged together with the teachers-priests to the same spiritual-academic corporation) is also discussed. The conversation can be considered as a multifaceted look at the history of Russian Orthodox theology in recent centuries, where there are still gaps identified by the author.