Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov's theology of history in the light of Christian personalism

The article is devoted to the theological understanding of history in the writings of one of the 20th century outstanding theologians, schema-archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov. Being at the same time the successor of such very different and in many ways even polar to each other theologians as V. N. Lossky and archpriest Sergei Bulgakov, archim. Sofrony creatively assimilates valuable components of their heritage, forming his own, deeply original view of the relationship between God and man in history. In the center of his attention is the entirely Christ-like path of the Church - a path that has two mutually directed internal vectors of its development - descent to the world and ascent to God, kenosis and theosis. This path, internally ambivalent, constitutes the core of the entire historical process, participates in history in the cause of Christ Himself. It takes place on two scales - “small” and “great” history. Between the “small” and the “great”, the person and the Church, the person and humanity, there is a typological relationship - their stories are a single process characterized by the interdependence of these driving forces. Moreover, in archim. Sophrony’s theological system are closely connected and mutually correlated the Holy Trinity, the Christ, the Church and all mankind. In its significance, archim. Sophrony Sakharov’s theology of history can be recognized as one of the most important and developed contributions of the 20th century to this area of theological thought.