St. Tikhon’s University Review . Series I: Theology. Philosophy. Religious Studies

This article explores individual interpretations of the biblical passage regarding the two witnesses in Revelation 11: 3-13 which explain it as a prophecy of the entire history of the Church. Actually there are two main interpretations of the passage proposed by biblical scholars. According to the first, persecuted Christians will be preserved by God from spiritual harm and glorified before their enemies. According to the second, the witness of the Church will be instrumental for the conversion and repentance of many nations. The present article suggests that these two interpretations point to two separate aspects of this teaching in the book of Revelation.

REVELATION OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE, APOCALYPSE, TWO WITNESSES OF REV 11: 3-13, SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION OF THE APOCALYPSE, FORERUNNERS OF THE SECOND COMING, PROPHET ELIJ AH, CHRISTIAN CHURCH, CONVERSION OF HEATHEN, R. BAUCKHAM, CONTEMPORARY BIBLICAL STUD

Androsova Veronika

This article discusses the principle meanings of the term «ύπόστασις» (person) in theology during the time of the great Christological disputes. The author attempts to shed light on the various ways of understanding the term «ύπόστασις» (person) as the real nucleus of the person in the Christology of those writers who defended a diphysite theology from the sixth to the ninth centuries.

PATRISTIC THEOLOGY, THEOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY, HYPOSTASIS, PERSON, DIPHYSITE THEOLOGY, CHRISTOLOGY

Davydenkov Oleg, archpriest

This article contains a short analysis of the principle problems concerning the link connecting the philosophical-theological speculations of Father Pavel Flrenskiy and the ideas of Archimandrite Serapion (Mashkin). This problem has several times been raised in the pertinent literature on the subject. But the secret of its resolution lies in a first-hand acquaintance with the works of Archimandrite Serapion. The current article represents one of the first attempts to solve these problems based on the employ of primary source material.

FATHER PAVEL FLORENSKIY, ARCHIMANDRITE SERAPION (MASHKIN), THE COLUMN AND CONFIRMATION OF TRUTH, A SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY, MANUSCRIPT, PRIMARY SOURCES, CORRESPONDENCE, QUOTE, REFERENCE

Pavlyuchenkov Nikolai

This article may be seen as an introduction to the problems surrounding the study of the Soviet esoteric underground of the sixties to the eighties of the twentieth century. Certain dissident groups in Moscow and Leningrad sharply differentiated themselves from others since the former were guided by esoteric teachings and principles derived from Traditionalism, the Fourth Way, Agni-Yoga, and similar ideologies.

WESTERN ESOTERICISM, SOVIET UNDERGROUND GROUPS, YEVGENIY GOLOVIN, VLADIMIR STEPANOV, YURIY MAMLEEV, THE LEFT HAND PATH, TRADITIONALISM, ANTHROPOSOPHY, THE TEACHING OF THE FOURTH PATH

Nosachev Pavel

This article analyses the existence of several religious phenomena common in western studies of religion — especially the idea of a quasi-religion. It differentiates between two approaches to the study of quasi-religion: one phenomenological and the other sociological. It studies the theories proposed by Paul Tillich, John Smith, and Arthur Greil. The author of the present article agrees that these ideas are based on real theological prerequisites. The idea of a quasi-religion helps us to understand the connection and interdisciplinary rapport between theology and religious studies during the whole of the twentieth century.

QUASIRELIGION, THEOLOGY, PAUL TILLICH, PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION, SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION, J. WACH, J. SMITH, A. GREIL, M. HAMILTON

Kolkunova Ksenia

The conflict between secular and religious academics is not the result of the many decades of enforced atheism but dates from a much earlier time. Two examples drawn from the academic biography of the noted Russian Byzantine studies expert may serve as an illustration of the difficult relations between representatives of the theological academies and of secular academics. The disputes regarded some points of scientific methodology. The author highlights the very seriously observed principle ofa competency guided approach to scientific studies. This was stressed to the point of this becoming an absolute principle. It continues even today to exert a negative resonance in the Russian academic world.

THEOLOGY, CHURCH HISTORY, SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCY, METHODOLOGY, THEOLOGICAL METHOD, THEOLOGICAL ACADEMIES, ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, MARKEVSKIY AWARD, AKHMATOVA AWARD, F. I. USPENSKIY, I. E. TROITSKIY, A. P. LEBEDEV, N. N. GLUBOKOVSKIY, V. V. CHETYRKIN

Ermilov Pavel, диакон

This article explores the early stage of theological disputes regarding the presence of icons in the church, in which Patriarch Germanos I of Constantinople took a direct and active part. The author discusses several particularities of these disputes and by referring to the patriarch’s use of the idea of a visual Sacred Scripture demonstrates that already at the very beginning of the seventh century, the hierarch already opposed the iconoclasts with a complete and well prepared theology of icons.

ICON, IMAGE, ICONOCLASM, ICON VENERATION, IDOLATRY, SACRED SCRIPTURE, PATRIARCH GERMANOS I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, SEVENTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

Zaplatnikov Sergei