Vladimir Lossky
Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky[b] (Russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Ло́сский; 1903–1958) was a Russian Eastern Orthodox theologian exiled in Paris. He emphasized theosis as the main principle of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Vladimir Lossky
7 February 1958 (aged 54)
Olga Lossky (great-granddaughter)
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1944)
Biography[edit]
Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky was born on 8 June (OS 26 May) 1903 in Göttingen, Germany.[12] His father, Nikolai Lossky, was professor of philosophy in Saint Petersburg.[13] Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky enrolled as a student at the faculty of Arts at Petrograd University in 1919, and, in the spring of 1922, was profoundly struck when he witnessed the trial which led to the execution of Metropolitan Benjamin of St Petersburg by the Soviets. Metropolitan Benjamin was later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.[4]
In November 1922, Lossky was expelled from Soviet Russia with his entire family. From 1922 to 1926, he continued his studies in Prague, and, subsequently, at the Sorbonne in Paris, where in 1927, he graduated in medieval philosophy. He married Madeleine Shapiro on 4 June 1928.[14]
Lossky settled in Paris in 1924.[15] From 1942 until 1958, he was a member of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He served as the first dean of the St. Dionysius Institute in Paris.[16] He taught dogmatic theology and ecclesiastical history in this institute until 1953, and, from 1953 to 1958, in the diocese of the patriarchate of Moscow, "rue Pétel" in Paris. He was a member of the Brotherhood Saint Photius and the ecumenical Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. His best-known work is Essai sur la theologie mystique de l'Église d'orient[17] (1944) (English translation, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1957).
Lossky died of a heart attack on 7 February 1958 in Paris.[18]
Mysticism and theology[edit]
For Lossky, Christian mysticism and dogmatic theology were one and the same. According to Lossky mysticism is Orthodox dogma par excellence. The Christian life of prayer and worship is the foundation for dogmatic theology, and the dogma of the church help Christians in their struggle for sanctification and deification. Without dogma future generations lose the specific orthodoxy (right mind) and orthopraxis (right practice) of the Eastern Orthodox path to salvation (see soteriology).