History and theology of history at the archpriest George Florovsky (based on the article “Difficulties of a Christian historian”)

Archpriest George Florovsky's attention to history runs through all his work. One of the most significant works of Fr. George in this regard is an extensive article of the late period of his scientific activity - “The Difficulties of a Christian historian” (1959). It is in this work that Father G. Florovsky touches, including in their mutual relation, two most common areas - the field of history as a science and a completely different area - the theology of history. His characteristics of these fields of knowledge are distinguished by a bright and original approach. The key opponent of Florovsky's historic-theological position is Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov. Together, these two major theologians of the XX century, speaking for the synergistic nature of the historical process, emphasize the different sides of the synergy of this process. Florovsky's excessive emphasis on human freedom leads him to the actual denial of the cognizable lawfulness of history. The opposite approach will be further developed by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) and further by the author of this article. Its development will lead to the emergence of the theory of historic-theological typological modeling.