- Born:
- June 18, 1681, Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire
- Died:
- Sept. 19, 1736, St. Petersburg (aged 55)
- Subjects Of Study:
- Lutheranism
- church and state
Feofan Prokopovich
-
Who was Feofan Prokopovich?
Feofan Prokopovich (1681–1736) was a Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop of Pskov who collaborated with Tsar Peter I the Great in transforming Russian culture and centralizing its political structure.
Prokopovich helped reform the Russian Orthodox church based on a Lutheran model, integrating church and state for two centuries. After converting to Roman Catholicism and studying in Rome, he returned to Kiev, reverted to Orthodoxy, and became abbot and rector of the Kiev academy.
In 1716, he was summoned to St. Petersburg as a counselor to the Tsar, and he helped replace the patriarchate with a Holy Synod. As synodal first vice president, he reformed the Russian church, subordinating it to the Tsar's authority, and developed a church-state relationship that lasted until the Russian Revolution of 1917.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where was Feofan Prokopovich from?
Feofan Prokopovich was born in Kiev, Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire. A Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop of Pskov, he collaborated with Tsar Peter I the Great in transforming Russian culture and centralizing its political structure. Prokopovich directed the reformation of the Russian Orthodox church based on a Lutheran model and politically integrated church and state, which lasted two centuries.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What kind of work did Feofan Prokopovich do?
Feofan Prokopovich was a Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop of Pskov who collaborated with Tsar Peter I the Great in westernizing Russian culture and centralizing its political structure. As a principal theorist, Prokopovich restructured the Russian church as a political arm of the state. He helped replace the patriarchate with a Holy Synod by drawing up the Spiritual Regulations in 1720, which legislated reforms for the entire Russian church, subordinating it to the authority of the Tsar. Prokopovich also promoted the autonomy of doctrinal theology from moral and ascetical teaching, basing his theology on liberal Protestant sources.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What were some important ideas that Feofan Prokopovich taught?
Feofan Prokopovich, a Russian Orthodox theologian, collaborated with Tsar Peter I to westernize Russian culture and centralize its political structure. As a principal theorist, he restructured the Russian church as a political arm of the state, replacing the patriarchate with a Holy Synod.
Prokopovich promoted the autonomy of doctrinal theology from moral and ascetical teaching and largely based his theology on liberal Protestant sources. His teachings, which insisted on Sacred Scripture as the sole source of Christian revelation, were markedly Lutheran, especially in their account of grace, free will, and justification.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did Feofan Prokopovich influence the Russian Orthodox Church?
Feofan Prokopovich, a Russian Orthodox theologian, significantly influenced the Russian Orthodox Church through his collaboration with Tsar Peter I. As a principal theorist, he restructured the church into a political arm of the state, replacing the patriarchate with a Holy Synod. Prokopovich drafted the Spiritual Regulations in 1720, which legislatively reformed the Russian church, subordinating it to the Tsar's authority. His theological teachings, drawing from liberal Protestant sources, leaned Lutheran, emphasizing Sacred Scripture and views on grace and free will. Prokopovich's doctrines prevailed until around 1836, marking a lasting impact on the church-state relationship in Russia.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why is Feofan Prokopovich important to Russian and Ukrainian history?
Feofan Prokopovich, a Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop, significantly impacted Russian and Ukrainian history through his collaboration with Tsar Peter I in westernizing Russian culture and centralizing its political structure. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, he reformed the Russian Orthodox church, modeling it after a Lutheran structure, and politically integrated the church and state—a relationship that lasted two centuries.
As a principal theorist, Prokopovich replaced the patriarchate with a Holy Synod, outlined in his 1720 Spiritual Regulations, subordinating the church to the Tsar's authority until the Russian Revolution of 1917. His theological work, drawing from liberal Protestant sources, shaped doctrinal theology and curriculum, promoting a Lutheran orientation that influenced theological teachings until around 1836.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Feofan Prokopovich (born June 18, 1681, Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Sept. 19, 1736, St. Petersburg) was a Russian Orthodox theologian and archbishop of Pskov, who by his administration, oratory, and writings collaborated with Tsar Peter I the Great (1672–1725) in westernizing Russian culture and centralizing its political structure. He also directed the reformation of the Russian Orthodox church in accordance with a Lutheran model and effected a political integration of church and state that was to last two centuries.
After an Orthodox education, Prokopovich, through the Latinizing influence of the Poles in Kiev, became a Roman Catholic and in 1698 entered the Greek College of San Anastasio in Rome. Declining the opportunity to enter the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), he returned to Kiev in 1701, reverted to his Orthodox faith, and later became abbot of the Kiev monastery and rector of its celebrated ecclesiastical academy, where he taught theology, literature, and rhetoric. After publicizing laudatory statements on the cultural-political reform of Peter the Great, he was called to the court at St. Petersburg in 1716 and was made a counselor to the tsar on church and educational affairs. As principal theorist in the restructuring of the Russian church as a political arm of the state, Prokopovich cooperated in replacing the patriarchate with a Holy Synod, or supreme ecclesiastical council, by drawing up in 1720 the Spiritual Regulations, a new constitution for Orthodoxy. Appointed synodal first vice president, he was responsible for the legislative reform of the entire Russian church, subordinating it to the secular and spiritual authority of Tsar Peter, and for effecting a church-state relationship, sometimes termed a Protestantized caesaropapism, that was to continue until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Such a theory was derived by combining concepts from the 17th-century English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes with Byzantine theocratic thought.
As a theologian, Prokopovich promoted the autonomy of doctrinal theology from moral and ascetical teaching. Basing his theology mainly on liberal Protestant sources, he formed a body of doctrine markedly Lutheran in orientation, particularly in its insistence on Sacred Scripture as the sole source of Christian revelation and in its account of grace, free will, and justification. His design of the theological curriculum for St. Petersburg’s ecclesiastical academy was patterned after the Lutheran faculty of Halle, Ger., and became the centre for the propagation of his Orthodox reform.
By his principal work, a systematic Latin exposition of the entire corpus of doctrinal theology—including tracts De Deo (“On God”), De Trinitate (“On the Trinity”), De Creatione et Providentia (“On Creation and Divine Providence”)—and on theological anthropology, Prokopovich’s teachings prevailed until about 1836, when a reaction toward traditional Orthodox beliefs set in. During the reign of Peter’s second successor, the empress Anna Ivanovna (1730–40), Prokopovich himself assumed a more conservative outlook than his earlier view of the papacy as Antichrist. His funeral eulogy for Tsar Peter reflected his devotion to his monarch and is considered a classic example of Russian oratory. To advance Peter’s cultural revolution, Prokopovich assisted in organizing the Russian Academy of Sciences and composed several didactic poems and plays acclaiming the new Russia.