Agustin en La Ortodoxia Rusa

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Augustine and Russian Orthodoxy: Russian Orthodox Theologians and Augustine of Hippo: ATwentieth Century Dialogue by Myroslaw I. TatarynReview by: James R. Payton Jr.Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 234-236Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20099798 .

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234

BOOK

REVIEWS

of mental

work

himself.

Yet,

this is

not

a

major problem.

This

is

a

very

stimulating

book,

which

offers much

to

reflect

on.

It

is

an

impressive

achievement.

School

of

History

PHILIP

BOOBBYER

University

of

Kent

Canterbury,

Kent CT2

7NX,

UK

Myroslaw I. Tataryn, Augustine and Russian Orthodoxy: Russian

Orthodox

Theologians

and

Augustine

of

Hippo

-

A

Twentieth

Century

Dialogue,

International

Scholars

Publications,

Lanham,

New

York,

Oxford,

2000.

Bibliography,

Index,

183

pp.

In

this

book,

Myroslaw

Tataryn

sets

forth

how

Russian

Orthodox

have dealt with

Augustine,

the

Church

father who

more

than

any

other

shaped

Western

Christian

thought.

He

does

so

by

analyzing

the

treatment

accorded the

bishop

of

Hippo by

Orthodox

spokesmen

from

the

early

nineteenth

century

(when

Russian

Orthodoxy

first

came

into

direct

contact

with

Western

Christian

thought)

through

the

establishment

and

formative

years

of

the

Theological

Institute of St.

Sergius

in

Paris,

when

Russian

Orthodox

theologians

found

themselves

living

in

the West.

With

all

this,

Tataryn's

otherwise

slender

monograph

also

opens

up

vistas

on

ecumenical

understandings

between

Western

Christianity

and Russian

Orthodoxy,

as

well

as

offering

insights

on

divergent

emphases

within the

?migr?

Russian Orthodox

community

of

theologians.

In

Historical

Background

(pp.

7-32),

Tataryn

concisely

treats

the

Slavophiles'

endorsement

of

Orthodoxy

as

superior

to

Western

Christianity,

the

increasing

interest

in

patristic

studies

within the

four

great

Russian

Orthodox

theological

academies

(Kiev,

Moscow,

St.

Petersburg,

and

Kazan),

and the

relevant

developments

up

to

the

Bolshevik

Revolution.

He

points

out

that

Augustine

initially

received sympathetic treatment in the nineteenth century, but that

he

soon

became identified

as

the

agent

provocateur

for

the

legalism,

rationalism,

and determinism

which

Russian Orthodox

theologians

espied

in

Western

Christian

thought.







BOOK REVIEWS

235

In

The Orthodox

Theological

Institute

in Paris

(pp. 33-44),

Tataryn

surveys

the

efforts of

Metropolitan

Evlogij (Georgievskij)

to

establish

a

center

of Orthodox

worship

and

teaching

in

Paris.

Significant

milestones

in

the

development

of

this

academy,

Theo

logical

Institute

of

St.

Sergius,

are

noted,

as are

the

early

members

of the

faculty.

In

addition,

the author indicates that the

faculty

were

involved

in

various

ecumenical

contacts

with Western Christians

but

were

themselves

resolutely

committed

to

the

presentation

and

defence

of

Orthodoxy

in its distinctiveness.

In The Paris Orthodox

Theologians (pp.

45-146),

Tataryn

comes

to

the

meat

of

his

monograph:

in this

extended

chapter

he

presents

the views

of the

faculty

of the

Theological

Institute,

focusing especially

on

their

treatment

of

Augustine.

Tataryn

treats

successively

Pavel

Florenskij,

George

Fedotov,

Sergei

Bulgakov,

Georges

Florovsky,

Vasilij Zen'kovskij,

and

Nikolaj Berdjaev.

(The

first and last

in this list receive

treatment

because,

even

though

they

never

taught

at

St.

Sergius,

both

Florenskij

and

Berdjaev

exer

cised considerable influence on the faculty there.)

Tataryn

offers

biographical

information

on

each of the

figures,

analysis

of their

main contributions

to

Russian Orthodox

thought,

and

specific

atten

tion

to

their

treatment

of

Augustine,

the chief

patristic

spokesman

for theWestern Christian

perspectives

from

which these

theologians

wanted

to

distinguish

Orthodox

views.

The results of

Tataryn's

investigations

are

interesting.

He

demon

strates

that all the

figures

accorded

great

respect

to

Augustine

as

a

profound

Christian

thinker,

even

if

they

ended

up differing

from

him in

various

regards.

Most of

the

particulars

of

those differences

which

Tataryn

sets

forth

will

hardly

be

surprising

to

anyone

familiar

with Orthodox doctrine

and

Augustinian perspectives: predestina

tion and human

will,

the

effects

of

Adam's

transgression, sexuality

and

concupiscence,

original

sin,

and the

image

of

God all

come

in

for

regular

discussion.

While little

in

the

treatment

is

surprising,

it

is nonetheless

stimulating

to

find

painstaking analyses

of how each

of the Russian Orthodox

theologians

specifically

interacted with

the

perspectives

of the

bishop

of

Hippo. Tataryn

indicates which

of

Augustine's

works each of the Russian Orthodox

spokesmen

seemed

conversant

with;

while

he

does

not

attempt

to

assess

how







236

BOOK REVIEWS

fairly any

of them

represented Augustine,

he

can

hardly

be

faulted

for

that,

since

that

lay

outside the

purview

of his

investigations.

One

striking

result of

Tataryn's explorations

is

the

discovery

that

Sergej

Bulgakov

was

the Russian

Orthodox

theologian

most

familiar with

and

most

insightfully

critical of

Augustine

-

consid

erably

more

so

than his

colleague Georges Florovsky,

who

taught

patristics

at

St.

Serge.

The

irony

of this

is,

on

the

one

hand,

that

Bulgakov

has

often

been criticized for his failures

to

be

deeply

rooted

enough

in the

patristic heritage (especially

as

he

set

forth

his

distinctive views

on

sophiology)

and,

on

the

other,

that

Florovsky

became

the

founder

of the Neo-Patristic school which

eclipsed

Bulgakov's

influence

within Orthodox

thought. Tataryn

thought

fully

suggests

that this

may

have

limited

Orthodoxy's ability

to

understand

and

critically

engage

itself with the

great

Latin Church

father

Augustine

(p.

154).

Tataryn's

slender

monograph

takes

its

place alongside

Nicolas

Zernov's The

Russian

Religious

Renaissance

of

the

Twentieth

Century

and Paul Valliere's recent Modern Russian

Theology:

Bukharev, Soloviev,

Bulgakov:

Orthodox

Theology

in

a

New

Key

as

a

valuable

treatment

of the

development

of

Russian

Orthodox

thought

in

the twentieth

century.

Its

scope

is

not

as

vast

as

either of

the

other

works,

to

be

sure;

however,

its focus

on

specific

criticism

of

Augustine

as

the

fountainhead

of much of what Russian

Ortho

doxy

has found

objectionable

in

Western Christian

thought

makes

Tataryn's

volume

especially

helpful

in

delineating

the

differences,

as

leading twentieth-century Russian Orthodox spokesmen have

seen

them,

between

Western Christian

teaching

and that of

Orthodoxy.

For all those

interested

in the

history

of Orthodox

thought,

the

rela

tionship

of

Western

Christian and Eastern

Orthodox

teaching,

or

the

development

of

self-consciously

Orthodox

perspectives,

the book is

warmly

recommended.

Department

of

History

JAMES R.

PAYTON,

JR.

Redeemer

University College

777 Garner Road East

Ancaster,

Ontario

Canada

L9K1J4





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Agustin en La Ortodoxia Rusa