Victor Nesmelov was a Russian philosopher and theologian at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. In his work “Science of a man” he elaborated the original anthropological concept by which he tried to justify the traditional Christian doctrine. This concept was a development of the ideas of V. Snegirev who was the teacher of Nesmelov while he was in the Kazan ecclesiastical academy. At the same time the fi rst important work of Nesmelov is a book dedicated to the teaching of the St. Gregory of Nyssa, who often perceived as a authority in the theological anthropology. In this article author tries to understand the nature of the interconnection between these two directions of the Nesmelov’s study. By an example of how Nesmelov presents the teaching of Apollinaris of Laodicea (the opponent of St. Gregory) author shows that this psychological approach was characteristic for Nesmelov from the very beggining of his academic way. In his “Science of a man” Nesmelov wants to develop new answers to Apollinaris’ heretical teaching — those answers which St. Gregory wasn’t able (according to Nesmelov) to propose it his time. The main theme in this new anthropological answer was the statement that human personality has a particular nature, which is not identical to the nature of each human individual. In this article author tries to analyze the doctrinal contradictions and complexities caused by the intellectual realization of the Nesmelov’s idea