Malinovskij, Nikolaj Platonovič

MALINOVSKIJ, NIKOLAJ PLATONOVIČ. - Russian theologian, son of a priest, d. 28 January (Old Style) 1917 in the diocese of Vologda, where he was born. From 1885 he taught dogmatic, moral, fundamental and comparative theology at the Seminary of Kharkov; in 1889 he was ordained priest; in 1894 he became inspector of the Seminary of Stavropol; around 1903 rector of that of Podol’sk and later of that of Vologda. Already rector and archpriest, on 9 April 1904 he defended his thesis (taking as his subject the first two volumes of his dogmatics) at the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy, obtaining the degree of Master in Theology.

The principal work of M. is his Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (4 vols., I, 1st ed., Kharkov 1895, 2nd ed., Sergiev Posad 1910; II, Stavropol-Gubenskij 1903; III-IV, Sergiev Posad 1909. There exist Annotations and Corrections to vols. III-IV, Sergiev Posad 1914). He also published a Manual of Dogmatic Theology (2 vols., 1st ed., Kamenets-Podol’sk 1904-1906; 2nd ed., Sergiev Posad 1911-12) and, in a still more concise form, a manual of dogmatics for the upper classes of secondary schools (ibid. 1912). Other works: The Indulgences and Taxes of the Infallible Popes for Sins (1905); On God the Redeemer (1906); On the Sacraments as Means of Sanctification of Man (1908).

M. is a compiler and collector of extensive material; indeed he cultivated all comparative and polemical theology, widely refuting the objections of his adversaries; he is more scholastic and speculative than his Russian predecessors who wrote dogmatics (such as Macarius and Sylvester). All this was objected to by progressive Russian theologians (e.g., Svetlov).