Protective and Conservative Tendencies in the Life and Works of the Priest Pavel Florensky

Abstract

The article discusses an important feature of Pavel Florensky’s biography and legacy that has not been properly covered by the existing research. Florensky is a well-known religious philosopher, the author of The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and lectures on the philosophy of cult and the philosophy of art. Russian theologists tend to perceive his ideas on a par with Sergei Bulgakov’s sophiology, in line with the modernizing trends of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which are characterized positively or negatively, depending on the preferences of scholars. The article identifies and comments on some basic facts that testify to Florensky’s desire to preserve intact the dogmata, the canons and the sacraments of the Orthodox Church. It highlights Florensky’s ideas directed against the concept of progress in the religious consciousness of mankind and the associated theory of “dogmatic development”. The main attention is drawn to Florensky’s position and actions during the upheavals of 1905–1907 and after the February Revolution of 1917. His efforts to preserve the liturgical and monastic life in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and other characteristic moments of his work under the Soviets are detailed. The main conclusion is that, although Florensky’s works contain ambiguous concepts and theologoumena, he should still be regarded as a conservative thinker who always had in mind the main goal for which the Orthodox Church existed.