Kiev Theological Academy Professor Mikhail Posnov passed away on this day in 1931. I am still convinced that Russian theological thought has not yet reached the pre-revolutionary level. Sure, there are some good craftsmen who “know their onions,” and I also know “rock-solid” figures who have set new trends in scholarship and have disciples of their own. Yet the earlier period still casts a long shadow, which is why I think it is important to study and understand the most important figures from it. Mikhail Posnov was one of them. He was born in 1873 in Ryazan Province. His grandfather was a serf and, in 1850, had succeeded in buying his freedom from a landlord. In this way, Posnov’s father, Manuel, moved from the country to Sapozhok in Ryazan province. Mikhail received basic theological training in a primary school (uchilische) there and continued at Ryazan seminary. In 1894, Posnov enrolled at Kiev Theological Academy. His life prior to emigrating in 1919 was connected to this school. Archpriest Prof. Dmitry Bogdashevskii wrote in 1910 to Professor Nikolai Glubokovskii about Posnov, “He is not especially gifted, but he is an extraordinary hard worker and has zeal for scholarship.” At Kiev Theological Academy, Posnov successfully defended his Master’s dissertation on the covenant between God and Israel. The Academy’s teaching corporation was conventionally divided into liberal and conservative wings. Posnov belonged to the second group. Whenever there were vacancies at Kiev Academy, Posnov tried to compete against other candidates. It took him several attempts until, in 1910, he was approved by the Most Holy Governing Synod in Saint Petersburg as Professor for New Testament Studies. In 1913, he transferred to the Department of Ancient Church History. Prof. Posnov did not have a problem criticizing his colleagues publicly, even those who had supported his nomination for a teaching post in 1910. As a result, Posnov had to defend his doctoral thesis on Gnosticism in Kazan rather than in Kiev. He received this degree in 1918. His outspokenness continued in Bulgaria, where he settled after leaving Ukraine in 1919. In 1923, Nikolai Glubokovskii was hired for a professorship of the New Testament in the newly opened theological department of the University of Sophia, instead of Posnov, who by that time had already been living in Bulgaria for three years. Posnov had openly denounced Archpriest George Shavelʹskii’s qualifications to teach Pastoral Theology, and he did not get the job. Glubokovskii publicly denounced Posnov’s rude comments about Bulgarian churchmen, and the theology department did not renew Posnov’s contract in 1928. Posnov continued to work as a professor at the history department. He died on this day in 1931. His lectures were published by his daughter Irene in 1964. She studied at Leuven University in Belgium, converted to Roman Catholicism, and founded the Life with God (Zhiznʹ s Bogom) publishing house. Source: Vladimir V. Bureha, “Zhiznennyi putʹ i nauchnoe nasledie professora M.E. Posnova,” Trudi Kievsʹkoi Dukhovnoi Akademi 26 (2017). |
