Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Feb 2015)
The Innovative Work of S. S. Glagolev: Theism in Russian Theological Academies of the Beginning of the Twentieth Century and Its Focusing on the Problem of Man
Abstract
The author details the results of her study of the works of Sergey Sergeyevich Glagolev, a prominent professor of the Moscow Theological Academy. Glagolev’s heritage produces a profound impression by means of its versatility, its original way of looking at diverse problems as well as his unique solutions to the same problems. For this reason, it possesses enduring relevance. Despite this fact, his correspondence is still not well known nor understood. The author focuses on Glagolev’s analysis of the human problem. This choice may be explained by the fact that Sergey Sergeevich considered the problem of man to be the key issue behind the collision of religion and science taking place during the early twentieth century. Glagolev attempted to solve this problem by focusing on certain aspects of the subject: the origin of mankind, the interaction of the spirit and the body, the immortality of the soul, the origin of religion, as well as the way in which religious faith came about. A vital aspect of Glagolev’s treatment of the problem of man is his criticism of Charles Darwin and Darwinism, and thereby of the entire theory of evolution. Glagolev disagreed with the basic premises of this theory as well as with some of its specific conclusions. While opposing the concept of anthropo-genesis, Glagolev formulated his own theory regarding the origins of mankind. Thus, Glagolev viewed the origins and later history of mankind through the prism of his theory of degradation, which allowed him to seamlessly link the biblical narrative of the origins of man with contemporary scientific data. The author concludes that Glagolev was a major influence in the development of Russian theology during the first years of the twentieth century.
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