Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought

Abstract

The book brings forth a comprehensive presentation of one of the most interesting of contemporary issues, namely an analysis of the relation between science and faith in Russian religious thought. It is a synthetic approach on the development of the problem throughout the whole history of Russian thought, starting from the medieval period and arriving in contemporary times. The key topic is considered the relationship between science and religion in the eighteenth century, the so-called academic philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the thought of Peter Chaadaev, the Slavophiles, and in the most influential literature figures, such as Fedor Dostoevsky and Lev Tolstoy. The book also analyzes two channels of the formation of philosophy in the context of the relationship between theology and science in Russia. The first is connected with the attempt to rationalize the truths of faith and is exemplified by Vladimir Soloviev and Nikolai Lossky; the second, the apophatic tradition, is presented by Fr. Pavel Florensky and Semen Frank. The book then describes the relation to scientific knowledge in the thought of Lev Shestov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergius Bulgakov, and Alexei Losev as well as the original project of Russian Cosmism (in the examples of Nikolai Fedorov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and Vladimir Vernadsky). Finally, the book presents the current state of the discussion on this topic by paying attention to the Neopatristic synthesis (Fr. Georges Florovsky and his followers) and offers a brief comparative analysis of the relationship between science and religion from the Western and Russian perspectives.