About the book: 2017 / Viktor Afanasyevich Kapitanchuk was born in 1945. Graduated in 1967. Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow University. In 1965 was baptized and became a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. He worked as a researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the field of radiation chemical processes. Since 1971, he went to work at the All-Russian Scientific and Restoration Center, where he dealt with issues of technology and methods for restoring works of art. Since 1991 works in the icon workshop of the Church of All Saints in Krasnoe Selo (Moscow). He began to be interested in issues of religious philosophy at the age of 16. He first studied Russian religious philosophers, then moved on to patristic theology. The main interest of his research is the acquisition of a holistic worldview based on the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church and at the same time covering the problems of human history and culture. “Integral knowledge” is conceived not as a “synthesis” of religion and culture, but as the churching of culture through its comprehension in the light of church consciousness. V.A. Kapitanchuk was one of the co-authors of the Appeal to the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, which was devoted to criticism of theological modernism, which at that time began to penetrate the pages of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. For some time, Kapitanchuk took part in the dissident movement, becoming in 1976. one of the founders of the Christian Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Believers. Later he changed his attitude towards dissidence and completely moved away from it. Over the past ten years, Kapitanchuk has repeatedly spoken at various, including international, theological and philosophical conferences with the results of his work. One of the articles, entitled: “Russia’s choice in the light of the Orthodox faith,” which has general significance for much of his work, was published in the magazine “Love and Faith,” 1,1995. Before “perestroika” he was repeatedly published in “samizdat” magazines and under various pseudonyms in foreign publications. Currently he continues to work on issues of iconology. In contrast to iconology, which studies icons themselves, “iconology” is understood as the doctrine of the images and structures of the created world in general, based on the Orthodox church tradition.