FEATURES OF RELIGIOUS FAITH UNDERSTANDING IN THE WORKS OF LEV SCHESTOV

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the views of L.Shestov, representative of the philosophy of the Silver Age, on the essence of faith and the possibility of its implementation in the spiritual life of man. The relationship between faith and reason, understanding of truth and necessity, science and philosophy in the context of the existential doctrine of the philosopher is considered. Truths as universally binding dogmas cannot serve as a solid foundation of human existence, man must accept the absence of «soil» and be freed from coercion of rationality and morality. Only faith (which is interpreted by L. Shestov as an existential breakthrough into another world, the world of God, beyond the limits of human cognition and understanding) frees and saves a person, contrary to common sense and formal logic, gives hope that the impossible can come true, that evil can be overcome, while changing both the future and the past. Attributive characteristics of faith, from the point of view of the Silver age’s thinker, are «baselessness», freedom, hope for a miracle/divine arbitrariness, spontaneous creativity, salvation. It is stressed the complexity and paradox of Shestov’s doctrine of faith.