IVANTSOV-PLATONOV, ALEKSANDR MICHAJLOVIČ. — Born in 1835, died in 1894, an archpriest and a noted Russian historian and ecclesiastic. Doctor of ecclesiastical history, he published numerous articles from 1858 onward in various ecclesiastical and secular journals on behalf of the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy. From 1872 he was a professor at the University of Moscow.
He was among the principal contributors to the Pravoslavnoe Obozrenie (“Orthodox Review”), which appeared between 1860 and 1891. He soon established relations with the Slavophiles. He translated into Russian the French and English theological works of Chomjakov (the pamphlets and the letters to the Anglican Palmer), furnishing them with extensive notes. In contrast with the Slavophiles, however, he had a more positive judgment of Western Christianity and theology. He sought rapprochement between the clergy and society, and between theology and life. He was more a historian and a man of action than a speculative theologian. His relations and controversies with V. Solov'ev, formerly his disciple, are well known; Solov'ev addressed to him 9 questions concerning the inviolability of the Nicene Symbol and the filioque. He also disputed with the philosopher B. Cicerin on the relations between religion and science, and with the historian A. P. Lebedev on philosophical currents in the age of the first ecumenical councils.
Among his principal works in Russian are noteworthy: Sul cattolicesimo romano e la sua relazione con l'ortodossia (2 parts, Moscow 1869–70); Schizzo di storia del cristianesimo presso gli slavi (ibid. 1869); Sulle confessioni occidentali (1st ed., ibid. 1887); Dottrina romano-cattolica sul potere del papa e Il potere secolare del papa (ibid. 1868); Movimenti religiosi in Oriente nei secc. IV e V (ibid. 1880–81); Le eresie e gli scismi dei primi tre secoli del cristianesimo (ibid. 1876–77; doctoral dissertation, favorably judged by Harnack); Contributo alle indagini su Fazio, patriarca di Costantinopoli (St Petersburg 1892).