Georgi Wassiljewitsch Florowski

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Georgi Florowski around 1925

Georges Florovsky , even Georges Florovsky and Georgy Florovskij , ( Russian Георгий Васильевич Флоровский * August 28 . Jul / 9. September  1893 greg. In Odessa ; † 11. August 1979 in Princeton (New Jersey) , United States ) was one of the most outstanding Orthodox theologians of the 20th century, who was also very involved in ecumenism .

Life

Georgi Wassiljewitsch Florowski was born in Odessa as the fourth child of an Orthodox priestly family. In an educated environment he learned English , German , French , Latin , Greek and Hebrew as a schoolboy . At the age of 18 he studied philosophy and history . After a first degree, he taught at schools in Odessa for three years and then graduated, including the licensia docendi, at all universities in the Russian Empire. In 1919 he began teaching at the University of Odessa , but in 1920 the family was forced to leave Russia. Florowski knew from the start that there was no going back for him, as the history and philosophy he taught would not be accepted by Marxism .

Florovsky had a close personal and professional friendship with Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdjajew in the 1920s . This became somewhat more distant in later years, among other things through Florowski's ordination to the priesthood, for which Berdjajew had no understanding and through Florowski's ways of Russian theology , which was critical of Berdjajew's religious philosophy.

In 1925, Florowski was appointed professor of patristics at the Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge in Paris. It was in the field of patristics that he found his real calling, and for him patrics also became the standard for Orthodox theology and the interpretation of Scripture, as well as the source for many of his contributions and criticisms of the ecumenical movement. For the rest of his life, Florowski was to teach at theological colleges, although he himself had no academic degree in theology (later, however, various honorary doctorates and other awards were added).

1932 Florovsky could be the priest of the Orthodox Church consecrated . In the 1930s he undertook extensive research in European libraries and wrote his most important works in the field of patristicism and his magnum opus, The Path of Russian Theology, in which, among other things, he questioned the Western influences of scholasticism , pietism and idealism on Russian theology and called for a new evaluation of Russian theology in the light of patristicism. The work was partly praised and partly condemned by the Russian émigrés - there was no neutral attitude. The work was rejected by Sergei Nikolajewitsch Bulgakow , the head of the St. Sergius Institute and representative of the Russian theological tradition of the 19th century, but also by Nikolai Alexandrowitsch Berdjajew , the representative of the religious renaissance of the 20th century.

In 1937 Florowski took part in the Second Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh . He strongly advocated the position that it was important and necessary to reveal the actual differences between Christians and also to express seemingly impossible positions of thought - there was no other way of real ecumenical dialogue. When the Lutherans and Presbyterians orally sought a compromise on the formulation of the grace doctrine, Florowski pointed out that there could be no real unity of doctrine as long as Lutherans and Calvinists were two different churches.

One result of the Edinburgh Conference was the plan to establish a World Council of Churches. Florowski was one of fourteen people appointed to draft a constitution for this body. With that he had reached a top position in world ecumenism, in which he would work tirelessly for the rest of his life for years to achieve essential Christian unity.

Florowski spent the Second World War in Switzerland and Belgrade , after the war he resumed teaching in Paris, combined with many trips and lectures on ecumenical issues. His written works from this period also reflect his ecumenical commitment: in many essays he presented the Orthodox teaching of the Church to an ecumenical audience.

At the opening conference of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam in 1949 , Florowski was the theological spokesman for the Orthodox Churches and gave a speech on ecumenical goals and doubts . In 1965 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Publications (selection)

Florowski published in Russian, French and English. Shortly before his death, his collected works appeared in English in fourteen volumes. Thematically, he devoted himself to the history of the Orthodox church and theology, church fathers and ecumenism.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Florowski, Georgi Wassiljewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Georges Florowsky, Георгий Васильевич Флоровский (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION orthodox theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Odessa
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1979
Place of death Princeton, New Jersey , United States