Alexander Vladimirovich Men

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial cross at the site of the murder of Men

Alexander Wladimirowitsch Men ( Russian Александр Владимирович Мень , scientific transliteration Aleksandr Vladimirovič Men ; born  January 20, 1935 in Moscow , †  September 9, 1990 in Semchos, today in Sergiyev Posad , Russia ) was a Russian Orthodox priest and religious philosopher . He is one of the leading Russian Orthodox theologians of the 20th century.

Life

He was born the son of a Jewish textile engineer and an Orthodox mother. He was baptized as a toddler. He went to the 554th school for boys in Moscow. In school he read the works of John Chrysostom , Basileus the Great , Augustine and Feofan Satwornik , as well as the Philocalie . Self-taught, he learned the subject matter of a Russian Orthodox seminary.

He studied biology at the Institute for Fur Goods in Balashikha and later in Irkutsk . Privately he studied theology and philosophy . He was interested in Baruch de Spinoza , René Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, but also in the orthodox theologians Pawel Florensky , Alexei Chomjakow , Nikolai Berdjajew and Sergei Bulgakow .

In Irkutsk he came into contact with the theology student and later dissident Gleb Jakunin . In 1958 the Institute for Fur Goods expelled him because he had worked several times in church administration without a permit. In the same year he was ordained an Orthodox deacon in Moscow , a few months later a priest and began studying at the spiritual seminary in Leningrad . In 1964 he moved to the Spiritual Academy in Moscow, where he received his doctorate in 1968 with a dissertation on monotheism and pre-Christian religions .

Men published ten books that were published abroad under a pseudonym as Tamizdat in Russian and returned to the Soviet Union as banned literature. Among the most important are the fundamental theological series In Search of the Way, Truth and Life (Russian W poiskach Puti, Istiny i Schisni , 1970–1983), an introduction to Christianity The Son of Man (Russian syn Tschelowetscheski , 1969) and one Treatise on the origin and development of Orthodox festivals, sacrament, word and image (Russian Tainstwo, Slowo i Obras , 1980).

His view that people are lost without God made him the bearer of hope for system opposition groups who were looking for a philosophy of life that was contrary to socialism . In the 1970s and 1980s, Men led the congregation in Tarasovka near Moscow and was an active missionary . He exerted influence among youth and in the scientific intelligentsia. In his village church he baptized several thousand people in a spectacular action. He published the magazine World of the Bible (Russian Mir Biblii ), founded a Free Orthodox University in Moscow in 1989 , and campaigned for ecumenism .

Men has been under surveillance by the KGB since the 1960s . The secret service ransacked his home several times and summoned him for questioning. After the reunification in the Soviet Union, he appeared several times on television, gained great popularity, but was hostile to nationalists and anti-Semites because of his Jewish origins and ecumenical views.

On September 9, 1990, he was killed early in the morning in Semchos near Sergiev Posad on the way to the church by an assassin with an ax. The government set up a commission of inquiry. Results were not presented. The chairman of the commission was also killed.

Men was married and had a son and a daughter. The son Mikhail Men was governor of Ivanovo Oblast from 2005 to 2013 .

The Catholic Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg - Stuttgart and the All-Russian Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow have been awarding the Alexander Men Prize annually since 1995 to personalities who have made outstanding contributions to the exchange between Russia and Germany .

Works

  • Son of man . Oakwood Publ., Torrance, Calif. 1998, ISBN 1-879038-28-5 ; German Der Menschensohn , edited by Klaus Mertes and Ulrike Patow, German by Monika Schierhorn. Herder, Freiburg; 2., through 2007 edition, ISBN 3451290596
  • About Christ and the church . Oakwood Publ., Torrance, Calif. 1996, ISBN 1879038293
  • Me Biblii . Knižnaja palata, Moskva 1990, ISBN 5-7000-0329-5
  • Smertiiu smert poprav . Eridan, Minsk 1990, ISBN 5858720013
  • Pravoslavnoe bogosluzenie: Tainstvo, slovo i obraz . Slovo, Moskva 1991, ISBN 5-85050-266-1
  • Istoriia religii v semi tomakh: V poiskakh Puti, Istiny i Zhizni . Slovo, Moskva 1991-1992, ISBN 5850502815
  • Bibliologicheskiĭ slovar . Fond imeni Aleksandra Menia, Moskva 2002, ISBN 5898310207

literature

  • Yves Hamant: Alexander Men: A witness for Christ in our time. Documents of Faith. Saur, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-598-11451-6 .
  • Michael Plekon: Alexander Men: A modern martyr, free in the faith, open to the world. In: Ders .: Living icons: Persons of faith in the Eastern church. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame (Ind.) 2002, ISBN 0-268-03350-1 .
  • Igor Pochoshajew: Let's put up the altars ... Aleksandr Men 'on the relationship between church and state. Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-87476-523-7 .
  • Igor Pochoshajew: The Ecumenical Significance of Aleksandr Men '. In: Annales Theologici Vol. 21 (2007), pp. 399-413.
  • Igor Pochoshajew (Ed.): For me all people are God's children. Theology, ecumenism and spiritual practice with Aleksandr Men '. Lectures at the conference in Rostock from 5. – 6. June 2007. Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-87476-567-1 .
  • Ann Shukman, Elizabeth Roberts (Eds.): Christianity for the twenty-first century: The life and work of Alexander Men. SCM, London 1996, ISBN 0-334-02613-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Men, Alexander Vladimirovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Мень, Александр Владимирович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian clergyman and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow , Soviet Union
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1990
Place of death Sergiev Posad