''Imiaslavie'' (russian: Имяславие, literally "praising the name") or ''Imiabozhie'' (), also spelled ''imyaslavie'' and ''imyabozhie'', and also referred to as onomatodoxy, is a Christian dogmatic movement that asserts that the

name of God There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word ''god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or spec ...

is God Himself. The movement emerged in the beginning of the 20th century, but both proponents and opponents claim it to be connected with religious thought throughout the history of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

. Advocates in particular claim its connections to the

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

, while opponents claim the connections to the ancient heresiarchs.

Beginning

The 20th century history of ''imiaslavie'' started in 1907 with the publication of the book ''On the

Caucasus Mountains The Caucasus Mountains, : pronounced * hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ, : pronounced * az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced * rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ * tr, Kafkas Dağla ...

'' by a revered ''starets'', schema-monk Hilarion. In his book, Hilarion told of his spiritual experience with the

Jesus Prayer The Jesus Prayer,; syr, ܨܠܘܬܐ ܕܝܫܘܥ, translit=slotho d-yeshu'; syr, label=Amharic, Geez and Tigrinya, እግዚኦ መሐረነ ክርስቶስ, translit=igizi'o meḥarene kirisitosi. "Note: We are still searching the Fathers for t ...

as a proof that "The name of God is God Himself and can produce miracles". The book became extremely popular among the Russian monks on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the peni ...

(then in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

, now in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

). Many of them argued that since, according to

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and the

Stoics Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting tha ...

, names and forms pre-exist prior to becoming “sensual manifestations in the world", so the name of God must have existed prior to creation, and that the Holy Name cannot be anything but God Himself. Among other things, this was thought to mean that knowledge of the secret name of God alone allows one to perform miracles (a similar concept exists in

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

Persecution on Mount Athos

Both Elder Hilarion’s book on Hesychasm and Fr. Anthony Alexander Bulatovich’s book defending Name-Glorification drew many monks of

into the controversy. Ecumenical Patriarchs Joachim III of Constantinople and Germanus V of Constantinople and the

Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church ( rus, Священный синод Русской православной церкви, Svyashchennyy sinod Russkoy pravoslavnoy tserkvi) serves by Church statute as the supreme administrative g ...

issued condemnations of Name-Glorification as being

pantheistic Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...

, but without ever interviewing its supporters. Name-Glorifiers on Mount Athos were denied mail, money transfers, as well as the Mysteries. On June 17, 1913 the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

steamship ''Tsar'' arrived at Mount Athos with Archbishop Nikon, Professor Triotsky, 118 soldiers and 5 officers to enforce the ruling of the Holy Synod. That same day, the Protos, the monastic office of the Eastern Orthodox monastic state of Mount Athos, announced that if the "heretics" were not removed from the area, then all of the Russians would be expelled by the Greeks. On July 16, 1913, the ''Kherson'' arrived and the Russian soldiers began arresting unarmed Name-Glorifiers. Shebunin, the Russian consul in Constantinople, ordered the 6th Company of the 50th Białystok Regiment to take them by storm, but without bloodshed. These soldiers were made drunk for this purpose by Archimandrite Misail, head of St. Panteleimon Monastery, resulting in bloodshed. The ''Kherson'' doctor’s registry lists 46 monks from St. Panteleimon were injured and allegedly four killed. This occurred on the feast day of the miraculous

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...

of the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or '' Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...

Galaktotrophousa The Nursing Madonna, ''Virgo Lactans'', or Madonna Lactans, is an iconography of the Madonna and Child in which the Virgin Mary is shown breastfeeding the infant Jesus. In Italian it is called the ''Madonna del Latte'' ("Madonna of milk"). It wa ...

'' (“Milk-Giver”), enshrined at Hilandar Monastery of the

Serbians The term Serbians in English is a polysemic word, with two distinctive meanings, derived from morphological differences: * Morphology 1: Serb- ian- s, derived from the noun '' Serb'' and used interchangeably to refer to ethnic Serbs, thus havi ...

. More Name-Glorifiers at the Skete of Saint Andrew were arrested on July 19 without confrontation. The steamer with the captured monks stood near Athos until July 22. 40 of the injured were sent to the Mount Athos hospital and the remaining 621 monks (418 from St. Panteleimon’s and 183 from St. Andrew’s) were shipped to Odessa. Upon arrival, customs agents seized all of their possessions which were never returned. After interrogation in Odessa, 8 monks were deported back to St. Andrew’s, 40 jailed, and the rest had their hair and beards shaved, were

defrocked Defrocking, unfrocking, degradation, or laicization of clergy is the removal of their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. It may be grounded on criminal convictions, disciplinary problems, or disagreements over doctrine or ...

, and resettled in the cities of their homeland. Those who were priests were forbidden to hold liturgies, while many were denied the sacraments for the rest of their lives, and at death were deprived the last rites and a Christian burial. On July 17, 1923 another 212 monks who opted to voluntarily leave Mount Athos arrived in Odessa on the steamer ''Chikhachev,'' some wearing Jewish '' kippot'' as ritual mockery. The population of Russian monks on Mount Athos, recorded as being 3,496 in 1910, shrank to 1,914 in 1914.

Proponents and opponents

The main proponent of the ''Imiaslavie'' doctrine was Anthony Bulatovich, a

Hieromonk A hieromonk ( el, Ἱερομόναχος, Ieromonachos; ka, მღვდელმონაზონი, tr; Slavonic: ''Ieromonakh'', ro, Ieromonah), also called a priestmonk, is a monk who is also a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church an ...

of St. Andrew’s who published books on the subject. Those who promote this doctrine claim support from the writings of Saint

John of Kronstadt John of Kronstadt or John Iliytch Sergieff ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform russian: Иоа́нн Кроншта́дтский; 1829 – ) was a Russian Orthodox archpriest and a member of the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. ...

, and the influential mystic and healer

Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian Mysticism, mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II of Russia, Nicholas II, the ...

, the popularly styled "mad monk" closely associated with the Russian Imperial Family shortly before the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mom ...

. Saint John of Kronstadt died before this controversy erupted, and his quotes, it can be argued, were taken out of context to support a whole set of ideas that were not found in his own writings. One of the most precise definitions of the Imiaslavie position comes from its advocate

Aleksei Losev Aleksei Fedorovich Losev (russian: Алексе́й Фёдорович Ло́сев; 23 September 1893 – 24 May 1988) was a Russian philosopher, philologist and culturologist, one of the most prominent figures in Russian philosophical and rel ...

who writes that Imiaslavie is to be understood as “mystical formula”: “the exact mystical formula of Imiaslavie will sound like this: a) the name of God is energy of God, inseparable from the essence of God itself, and therefore is God himself. b) However, God is distinct from His energies and from His name, and that is why God is not His name or a name in general”

Aftermath

On 27 August 1914, Bulatovich asked to be sent as an Army

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and this request was granted by the Holy Synod. He sent two letters to

Tsar Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

between 1914-16. In his 1914 letter, he warned: The procrastination and actions of the Synod "push" Russia into disasters: "What further disasters this will lead Russia to, only God knows this”. On 1 July 1915, the Holy Synod received a letter from the original author, ''starets'' and schema-monk Hilarion, asking whether he was expelled from the Church; Hilarion lived as a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...

in the Caucasus Mountains and seems to have been unaware of the controversy and unrest his book caused. Hilarion stated in July 1915 that the persecution coming from “the highest members of the Russian hierarchy, is a sure omen of the proximity of times in which the last enemy of truth, the all-pernicious

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...

, has to come.” Hilarion died on 2 June 1916, without having received an answer. In September 1917, the Pomestny Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church was convened to solve the ''Imiaslavie'' question'','' with both strong proponents and opponents present. The work of the ''Sobor'' was aborted due to the

. Among the theologians who advocated for ''Imiaslavie'' were

Pavel Florensky Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (also P. A. Florenskiĭ, Florenskii, Florenskij; russian: Па́вел Алекса́ндрович Флоре́нский; hy, Պավել Ֆլորենսկի, Pavel Florenski; – December 8, 1937) was a Russian O ...

and Sergey Bulgakov. Bulatovich’s second letter to the Tsar in 1916 noted that he “correlates the military failures of Russia in World War 1 at the front with the struggle of the Synod against Name-Glorification”.Pavel Florensky ''Brief biography of Starets Illarion and History of Imiaslavie in Russia''
/ref> Bishop

Hilarion (Alfeyev) Hilarion (secular name Grigory Valerievich Alfeyev, russian: Григо́рий Вале́риевич Алфе́ев; 24 July 1966) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church and the current metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary. He is also a no ...

wrote in 1999 that: “Even though the movement of the 'Name-worshippers' was crushed at the beginning of the century on the orders of the Holy Synod, discussion of the matter regained impetus in the years preceding the Moscow Council (1917–18), which was supposed to come to a decision about this but did not succeed in doing so. Thus the Church's final assessment of Name-worshipping remains an open question to this day.”

''Imiaslavie'' and mathematics

The Russian Mathematics School is considered by some to have been created by

Dmitri Egorov Dmitri Fyodorovich Egorov (russian: Дми́трий Фёдорович Его́ров; December 22, 1869 – September 10, 1931) was a Russian and Soviet mathematician known for contributions to the areas of differential geometry and mathematic ...

and Nikolai Luzin, both of whom were imiaslavians and personal friends of

as well as philosopher

(both imiaslavians in theology).

Analysis

Social Psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the ...

Prof. Martin Bauer frames this as a conflict over "representation" which "centres on the issue of whether a word is more than just a ''flatus voci'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for a vocal fart)."Gordon Sammut et al. editors; The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015; p. 43. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107323650.006

Notes

References

External links

Met. Alfeyev, ''The Sacred Mystery of the Church''
* Pavel Florensky,

' * ttp://www.examen.ru/add/manual/school-subjects/social-sciences/philosophy/russkaya-filosofiya/7-duxovno-akademicheskaya-filosofiya/losev-a-f-imyaslavie Alexei Losev ''Imiaslavie''
Alexei Losev, ''Philosophy of a Name''

*Martin W. Bauer, �
On (social) representations and the iconoclastic impetus”
in The Cambridge Handbook of Social Representations; Edited by Gordon Sammut, Eleni Andreouli, Milton Keynes, George Gaskell, Jaan Valsiner; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, MA (2015)
Nel Grillaert, “What’s in God’s Name: literary forerunners and philosophical allies of the imjaslavie debate” (Ghent University: 2012)Clarification of Bishop Gregory of Petrograd and Gdov Concerning the Barlaamite Heresy of Bishop Photios of Marathon

G.M. Hamburg, “The Origins of 'Heresy' on Mount Athos: Ilarion's Na Gorakh Kavkaza (1907)”Scott M. Kenworthy, "Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvenskii) and Pavel Florenskii on Spiritual Experience, Theology, and the Name-Glorifiers Dispute"Scott M. Kenworthy, "Debating the Theology of the Name in Post-Soviet Russia: Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeev and Sergei Khoruzhii"Anthony Khrapovitsky, ''“On The New False Teaching, The Deifying Name”''

Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvenskii), ''"The Crafty designs of the enemy will destroy...": Diaries: 1910-1917''
- by active disputant in the controversy with the Imiabozhie
Paul Ladouceur, “The Name of God Conflict in Orthodox Theology," St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, 56, 4 (2012), 415-436.K. Senina ''The status of divine revelation in the works of Hieromonk Anthony Bulatovich''
* ttp://www.regels.org/Divine-Name-Controversy.htm Tatiana Senina '’The Divine Name Controversy''br>Tatiana Sénina, Un palamite russe du début du XXème siècle : le hiéromoine Antoine Boulatovitch et sa doctrine sur l’énergie divine
, in ''Scrinium'', t. 6: ''Patrologia Pacifica Secunda'' (2010) 392-409.
Teresa Obolevitch, “Christian Philosophy and the Name of God: Aesthetics as a Way of Life according to Alexei Losev”; The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 71/1-2 (2019), p. 93-106
*{{in lang, ru}
''Of imyaslavtsy or imyabozhniki: Dispute about nature of the name of God and Athos''
- Extensive discussion
In the Name of God:100 Years of the Imiaslavie Movement in the Church of RussiaMatthew Raphael Johnson, “‘Name Worship,’ Epistemology and the Abuse of Christian Philosophy: A Revision”ONOMATOLATRIA: The Church decisions that condemned Name-WorshippingDaniel Paul Payne, ''The Revival of Political Hesychasm in Contemporary Orthodox Thought'', Lexington Books: 2011Loren Graham lectures on his book ''Naming God, Naming Infinity: Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity''
Eastern Orthodox belief and doctrine Heresy in Christianity Language and mysticism Conceptions of God