Verkhovskoy, Sergey Sergeevich

Born July 5, 1907 in a family of hereditary noblemen of the Kostroma province , father - engineer of communications.

In 1920, the Verkhovsky family was evacuated to Constantinople with the army of General P.N. Wrangel , in 1921 moved to Czechoslovakia . He received his secondary education in Prague, then studied at the University of Bratislava and the Sorbonne in Paris .

In 1931 he married Olga Sergeyevna Chetverikova, daughter of Archpriest Sergei Chetverikov .

In 1932-1936 he studied at the St. Sergius Theological Institute in Paris, where he defended his dissertation.

In 1937-1941 he was the secretary of the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSHD).

In 1944-1952 he taught moral theology and the history of philosophy at the St. Sergius Theological Institute. At the same time, in 1945-1952, he was chairman of the brotherhood of Christ the Savior in Paris. Member of the Diocesan Council of the Russian Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the laity.

In 1952, at the invitation of St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary (pc. New York), he moved to the United States, held the position of professor of dogmatic, moral and comparative theology. In 1955 he was appointed vice-rector of the seminary.

As a consultant, he participated in the 2nd WCC Assembly in Evanston (Illinois, 1954).

In 1956/1957 he was invited to lecture at the Bosset Ecumenical Institute . He was a member of the Commission on Ecclesiology at the National Council of Churches (USA).

In 1960, he received a doctorate in theology from the St. Sergius Theological Institute.

In 1968, the Orthodox Church in America was delegated to the 4th WCC Assembly in Uppsala (Sweden).

In 1981, retired. He died on August 4, 1986 at Lawrence Hospital in Bronkville, New York, at the age of 79. He had a sister, three daughters, and nine nine grandchildren and granddaughters ^[3] .

Representative neopatristic synthesis ; the main emphasis was on Holy Scripture , understood in the patristic context ^[4] . Rejected the sophiology of Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov and the priests Pavel Florensky . Recognizing the many achievements in historical, linguistic, literary and archaeological studies for studying the Holy Scriptures, he sharply criticized contemporary biblical studies, especially the interpretations of the Bible, carried out without taking into account the context of the liturgical and ascetic life of the Orthodox Church.

As an Orthodox theologian, I cannot have any other desire than to be faithful to the teachings of the Church. If my thoughts are mistaken in anything, I will first welcome sound criticism ... I focused mainly on the purely spiritual, moral and intellectual side of our path to God, because they usually speak less about it than about other possible ways of communing with God ... Question of knowledge of God may seem too difficult and special. But one can only regret that modern people often find it superfluous to know anything about God and understand why faith in God is reasonable and necessary ^[5] .

- From the foreword to the book “God and Man” (New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1956) ^[6]

• Protopr. Thomas Hopko. VERKHOVSKOY Sergey Sergeevich // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church and Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2004. - T. VIII. - S. 24. - 752 p. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-014-5 .