«Crisis of Russian Byzantinism» and Translations of Greek Church Fathers in the Old Rus’

Abstract

Archpriest G. Florovsky is known to have been a true «hellenist», and Christian hellenism was to him a measure of historical and theological processes in the Church. This approach elicits varied response, however it lies in the basis of the assessment given by Father Georgy to theology in the Old Rus’ and is presented in the first chapter of his «Ways of the Russian Theology». No evaluation to this fact is given in the article, while the author draws attention to the understudied condition of theological works in the Old Rus’, and specifically of the Old Russian translations of Greek Church Fathers. Only development of consolidated catalogues of patristic works (the various repertories, which contain accurate data about patristic texts in Church Slavonic and refer to the Greek tradition) would allow to critically observe many ideas expressed by Father Georgy in the first chapter of the «Ways…» and provide basis for objective expounding of the Old Russian theology. While some progress has been achieved in this area of research, objective reconstitution of the early medieval Russian theology is far from being complete.