Malinovskij, Nikolaj Platonovič

MALINOVSKIJ, NIKOLAJ PLATONOVIČ. - Russian theologian, son of a priest, d. January 28 (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 became a priest, in 1894 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 April 9, 1904 he defended his thesis (presenting as its subject matter the first two volumes of his dogmatics) at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Moscow, obtaining the degree of master in theology.

M.'s principal work is his Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (4 vols., I, 1st ed., Kharkov 1895, 2nd ed., Sergiyev Posad 1910; II, Stavropol-Gubenskij 1903; III-IV, Sergiyev Posad 1909.

There exist Annotations and Corrections to vols. III-IV, Sergiyev Posad 1914). He also published a Manual of Dogmatic Theology (2 vols., 1st ed., Kamenets-Podol'sk 1904-1906; 2nd ed., Sergiyev Posad 1911-12) and, in an even more condensed 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 the Sanctification of Man (1908).

M. is a compiler and collector of extensive material; he cultivates indeed the whole of comparative and polemical theology, he refutes at length the objections of his adversaries; he is more scholastic and speculative than his predecessors who authored a Russian dogmatics (such as Macarius and Sylvester). All this was objected to him by progressive Russian theologians (e.g., Svetlov).

Bernardo Schultze