09 January 2005

Was Tsar Alexander I unOrthodox?

In 1721 Peter the Great of Russia effectively made the Russian Orthodox Church an arm of the state, declining to replace the deceased Patriarch of Moscow and appointing in his stead a lay procurator of the Holy Synod. Although the emperor gained no spiritual or doctrinal authority over the church, he nevertheless gained political control over it, following the pattern of the Scandinavian and English state churches.

Thus Alexander I inherited this position of effective head of the church when he came to the imperial throne. As I wrote last week, after his first years as a would-be reformer, he became increasingly devout and plunged into the study of scripture. However, might he have been less than Orthodox -- with an upper-case O -- in his beliefs? Alexis Troubetzkoy quotes something Alexander wrote in 1813:

Address your prayers to the Supreme Being, to Our Saviour and to the Holy Ghost, which emanates from them, so that they will guide me and strengthen me in the only path, which leads to salvation (Troubetzkoy, p. 68, emphasis mine).

The italicized passage above stands out, as it seems to reflect a belief in the double-procession of the Holy Spirit, as affirmed by the western church. This makes me wonder (1) whether the passage was translated into English correctly or (2) whether Alexander himself was less acquainted with the specifics of Orthodox doctrine than with the Bible itself. Either alternative would seem possible, but I cannot say which is true.

No comments:

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
Contact at: dtkoyzis at gmail dot com