Aleksey Khomyakov

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Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov (Алексей Степанович Хомяков) (May 1, 1804 - September 23/25, 1860) was a Russian religious poet who helped found the Slavophile movement and became one of its most distinguished theoreticians.

Khomyakov's whole life was centered on Moscow. He viewed this "thousand-domed city" as an epitome of the Russian way of life. Equally successful as a landlord and conversatialist, he published but little during his lifetime. His writings, printed posthumously by his friends and disciples, exerted profound influence on the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian lay philosophers, such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, and Vladimir Solovyov.

For Khomyakov, socialism and capitalism were equally repugnant offspring of Western decadance. The West failed to solve human spiritual problems, as it stressed competition at the expense of cooperation. In his own words, "Rome kept unity at the expense of freedom, while Protestants had freedom but lost unity."

Khomyakov's own ideals revolved around the term sobornost, being the Slavonic equivalent of catholicity found in the Nicene Creed and loosely translated as "togetherness" or "symphony". Khomyakov viewed the Russian obshchina as a perfect example of sobornost and extolled the Russian peasants for their humility. Ironically, he died from cholera, infected by a peasant he had attempted to treat.

[edit] Works

Полное собранiе сочиненiй. Томъ I-VIII. Москва, 1900-1914.

[edit] Bibliography

Lea Blumentritt-Virághalmy: A homjakovi ekkléziológia szókincsének szemantikai elemzése (The Semantic Analysis of the Vocabulary of the Khomiakovian Ecclesiology) Dissertatio ad doctoratum. Budapestini, 2002. 276 p.
Antonella Cavazza: A. S. Chomjakov. Opinione di un russo sugli stranieri. Bologna, 1997.
Albert Gratieux: A.S. Khomiakov et le Mouvement Slavophile (In: Unam Sanctam 5-6) Paris, 1939.
Georgio Paša: Homjakovi doctrina de Ecclesia. Excerpta ex dissertatione ad lauream in facultate Theologica Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae. Zagrebiae, 1943. 38 p.
Peter Plank: Parapolimena zur Ekklesiologie A. S. Chomjakovs (In: Ostkirchliche Studien, Würzburg, 1980. pp.3-29)
John S. Romanides: Orthodox Ecclesiology According to Alexis Khomiakov (In: The Greek Orthodox Theological Review 1956/II.1 pp.57-73.)
Bernhard Schultze S.J.: Chomjakows Lehre über die Eucharistie (In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica. Vol.XIV. N0 I-II) Roma, 1948. pp.138-161.
Ernst Christoph Suttner: Offenbarung, Gnade und Kirche bei A.S. Chomjakov. (In: Das östliche Christentum. Neue Folge 20) Würzburg, 1967. 200 p.
Jurij Samarin: Préface aux oeuvres théologiques de A.S. Khomiakov. (In: Unam Sanctam 7) Paris, 1939. 95 p.
Marcin Ks. Wojciechowski: Nieomylosc Kosciola Chrystusowego wedlug A. Chomiakowa i jego zwolenników. Lublin, 1938. 187 p.