Iconography as Alternative Social-Religious Vision: Fr Zinon (Teodor)

Fr Zinon (Teodor) is widely regarded as one of contemporary Russia’s most important—and controversial—iconographers. This paper argues that his work offers an alternative social-religious vision to that which is currently dominant in the Orthodox Church in Russia. The paper explores, in particular, the opportunity that Fr Zinon had in 2012–13 to realize his theological and artistic vision most fully, when he designed and executed the icons for the lower church of St Petersburg’s Feodorovskii Sobor. Fr Zinon asserts that the design of the lower church realizes what makes the church a loving community in which all members know themselves to be valued and in which they are able to participate actively in the Divine Liturgy and in loving service to others.