The Clash of Traditional and New Religious Consciousness in Theology of the twentieth century. Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvensky) and A. V. Kartashev

Abstract

The prevalence of the church-historical works by A. V. Kartashev, as well as the fame of his participation in the movement of «New Religious Consciousness» makes it urgent to consider in detail his views and their classifi cation. Our article compares the two directions of theological thought, by A. V. Kartashev and Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvensky). In the works by A. V. Kartashev, one can see his commitment to modernist theology, which is diff erent from the direction of the Archbishop Nikon. Archbishop Nikon appears as a follower of patristic theology, who is not indiff erent to the criticism of orthodox teaching; as a result, his works contain criticism of various modernist ideas. Consideration of the modernist theology criticism by Kartashev’s contemporary is relevant, because during this period those ideas became widespread and therefore refl ected in the works by Archbishop Nikon. This theological pole mics of the two directions is studied in the context of the following topics: ecclesiology, Ecumenical Councils, the limits of the sacraments’ grace and the saving grace eff ect, «dogmatic development», Biblical Revelation and Church reforms, «the Church Revival» and the attitude to asceticism, revolution and censorship.