TRUBETSKOY, EUGENE N

TRUBETSKOY, EUGENE N., lay theologian, epistemologist (1863–1920). After training at a classical “gymnasium” and developing an interest in music, he embraced Orthodoxy while listening to Anton Rubinstein conducting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He was a disciple of Vladimir Soloviev (q.v.) and used Soloviev’s doctrine of Sophia to interpret aspects of iconography (q.v.); he also wrote on epistemology and the philosophy of the Church Fathers (qq.v.). As professor of the philosophy of law at Kiev and Moscow universities, he was involved in the Russian liberal political movement to abolish autocratic power, including oppression by the Bolsheviks. At the time of his death, he was a member of the White Army during the Revolution. He is the author of Icons: Theology in Color (trans. 1973).