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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.
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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
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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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