TARĚEV, MICHAIL MICHAILOVIČ. — Russian theologian and philosopher (1867–1934).
A doctor of theology and professor of moral theology at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Moscow, he was, according to Florovskii, the extremist representative of moralism in Russian theology and, according to Glubokovskii, of a subjectivist, individualistic, anarchic mentality. T. wished to transform theology into «Christian philosophy», into a «system of Christian thought». Alongside objective dogmatics, stripped, however, of its scholastic heritage and transformed into a true science, that is, into a historical doctrine of dogmas, he recognized as the highest discipline the moral doctrine of Christianity, itself subjective.
Already in his first book, The Temptations of the God-Man as the Sole Redemptive Activity of Christ’s Entire Earthly Life, in Connection with the History of Pre-Christian Religions and of the Christian Church, Moscow 1892, he outlined his system. For the central idea of this book he was inspired by Dostoevsky (the legend of the Grand Inquisitor). Decisively contrasting natural and historical life with spiritual life, he distinguishes between moral temptation (the force of the triple concupiscence) and religious temptation (provoked by the contradiction whereby man, the image of God, is subjected to the restricted conditions of this life). In order to redeem man, Christ enclosed his divine life within the conditions and laws of human life, that is, he humbled himself (kenosis), and through this conquered religious temptation. T.’s principal work consists of the 4 vols. of Foundations of Christianity (I, Christ; II, The Gospel; III, Christian Contemplation of the World; IV, Christian Freedom, Serghiev Posad 1908). This was followed by a supplementary volume entitled The Religious Life, Serghiev Posad 1910–11. T.’s system met with harsh criticism from theologians; among other things, he had to defend himself against the accusation that, with excessive dependence on Merežkovskij and Rozanov, he taught the «freedom of the flesh», false doctrines concerning the power of the Church, etc. His defense against these accusations is collected in the book The Philosophy of Life, Serghiev Posad 1916, and in a series of articles in the journal Theological Messenger (there, 2 [1917], pp. 108–16, 254–68, 385–410; cf. also the appeal of the protopresbyter I. L. Janýšev to the Holy Synod, ibid., pp. 410–17). In his last book, Christian Philosophy (1917), T. rejects the principle of the patristic tradition, which he calls «gnosticism and asceticism, the accursed enemies of the Russian genius», and recognizes the word of God as the sole principle in theology.
T. sought to provide an organic, thorough, and original overview of Christ’s work. As a writer, too, he belongs among the most noteworthy of the more recent Russian theologians.