Alexander Schmemann

Alexander Dmitrievich Schmemann (Russian Александр Дмитриевич Шмеман, * September 13, 1921 in Tallinn, † December 13, 1983 in New York) was an Orthodox priest and theologian.

Biography

Alexander Schmemann was born in Estonia as a child of Russian immigrants. He spent his youth in France, where he also received his school and academic education. From 1930 to 1935 he was taught at a military school. He studied theology at the Institut de Théologie Orthodox Saint- Serge in Paris. In 1946 he was ordained a priest. From 1945 to 1951 he taught at the Institut Saint - Serge church history, before a call to the St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York received from Georgi Vasilyevich Florovsky, where he moved with his wife and three children.

In New York, he quickly gained a reputation as one of the leading theologians in the field of liturgical theology, a theology which sees the liturgical tradition of the Church as an important expression of Christian faith. In addition, he worked among others at Columbia University and at New York University and has given numerous guest lectures in the United States.

From 1962 until his death he was head of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and influenced an entire generation of priests. In his time, the seminar also received the reputation as an important theological study institution.

From 1970 he devoted himself to the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America, which became independent at the time of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On December 13, 1983, he died as a result of cancer.

Teaching and Views

Alexander Schmemann is a fundamentally new approach to study the Orthodox worship and thanks to the spiritual principles underlying it. A summary of it is his work, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom ( published in German under the title Eucharist - sacrament of the Kingdom of God ), which he completed shortly before his death.

Schmemann was also involved ecumenically and 1962-1965 observer at the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, he considered only the orthodoxy as a force that can be opposed to the general doom. But this it is necessary that Orthodoxy is again to the Divine simplicity, the Gospel message in its pure form, to joy, peace and truth in the Holy Spirit. At the orthodoxy he criticized among other things, idolatry against Byzantium, a self-satisfaction and an overemphasis of external rules and norms. Christianity stood for Schmemann unlike any ideology. Faith is by Schmemann not a religion and not a cult, but life in the faith of Christ: Religion and ideology are compatible. Christianity (as Faith ) is not compatible with any of the two. Religion and ideology enslave. Only faith freed. Ideological tendencies believed Schmemann also with Alexander Solzhenitsyn to realize what was becoming a burden to be originally friendly relationship with him.

Works

Alexander Schmemann published a large number of works, including:

  • Great Lent: Journey to Pascha (1969 )
  • For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (1970 )
  • Liturgy and Life: Christian Development Through Liturgical Experience ( 1974)
  • Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism (1974 )
  • Introduction to Liturgical Theology (1975 )
  • The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy (1977 )
  • Ultimate Questions: An Anthology of Modern Russian Religious Thought ( 1977)
  • Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West ( 1979)
  • The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom (1988 )
  • Celebration of Faith: I Believe ... (1991 )
  • Celebration of Faith: The Church Year ( 1994)
  • Celebration of Faith: The Virgin Mary ( 1995)
  • The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann 1973-1983 (2000)

Translated into German works of Alexander Schmemann are:

  • Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom of God. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 2005, ISBN 978-3894113889
  • Records from 1973 to 1983. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 2002, ISBN 978-3894113711
  • The Great Lent. Asceticism and Liturgy in the Orthodox Church. EOS -Verlag, ISBN 978-3830672722
  • The Mother of God. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 2010, ISBN 978-3894114121
  • Our Father. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 2008, ISBN 978-3894114039
  • From the joy of life: a book of faith of Orthodox Christians. Koinonia Oriens eV, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-933001-60-9
Cult (religious practice) Alexander Men Integrated Authority File
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