Russian religious thought and the idea of Christianization of life by A. M. Bukharev (father Theodore in monkhood). To the thinker’s 200th jubilee (1822-2022)

This article is devoted to the bicentenary since the birth of the Russian Orthodox thinker A. M. Bukharev (Archimandrite Theodore in monkhood). The talented and devout theologian (1822-1871) was already the author of a large number of devotional works and the creator of a profound and original religious and philosophical teaching, when he took a fateful decision in 1862, after the Holy Synod had banned his main work, to abdicate monkhood with its vow of obedience in order to keep faithful to his theological views. Nevertheless even being deprived of priestly office and his rights, the defrocked Bukharev still remained a convinced and humble Christian in the secular world. His unusual biography is treated in this article as a tragic event in the history of Russian spiritual culture. The merits and shortcomings of Bukharev’s wholesome teaching and his diverse but mainly latent influence on the subsequent generations of Russian thinkers are discussed. The actuality of Bukharev’s fundamental theological idea - a necessity to christianize life and culture owing to the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature - for the modern times is underlined.