Православие и «Радикальная ортодоксия»: понимание «посредничества» и перспективы взаимодействия

Abstract

The article critically examines the concept of “mediation” used by the modern conservative Christian philosophical and theological movement “Radical Orthodoxy” (arose at the end of the 20th century among Anglican and Catholic philosophers) and also puts the question about the prospects of dialogue between Orthodox tradition and the “Radical Orthodoxy”. The article gives general information about this movement and contemporary researches on it. It is noted that the term “Orthodoxy” in its name does not indicate a connection with Orthodoxy or any Christian denomination but is used in the sense close to the concept of Christian tradition and placed in a postmodern context. “Radical Orthodoxy” considers Christian theology a universal “mediator” which is designed to replace secular meta-discourse and strengthen the voice of Christianity in the world today. The author notes that the idea of universal mediation is connected with the gnostic approach to theology. Analyzing the principles of philosophical and theological constructions in this movement the author draws a parallel between the proposed concept of “mediation” and the fact that the authors of “Radical Orthodoxy” of all the themes of Russian religious philosophy showed special interest in gnostic Sofia. The article analyzes the origins of this view of Sofia and identifies the margins beyond which the Church considers sophiology to be a heresy. “Radical Orthodoxy” sophiologizes the concept of “mediation” in order to protect it from the threat of its “adaptation” to secular reality and to establish an ideal mediator which possesses the maximum possible explanatory theological flexibility. Nevertheless, this approach has some vulnerabilities, since its way of theologisation of secular discourse can lead to the opposite effect – the secularization of theology, which was sometimes done by Russian religious philosophers of the 19th-20th centuries. In conclusion the author argues that a successful dialogue between representatives of the Orthodox tradition and the “Radical Orthodoxy” is more promising in the socio-political plane than in the theological one.