Vasil Ekzemplarsky and Petro Kudryavtsev: at the Crossroads of Creative Paths

Abstract

In the article, for the first time, a comparative analysis of the creative biographies of Kyiv thinkers, pupils and teachers of the Kyiv Theological Academy (1819–1924), Pyotr Kudryavtsev (1868–1940) and Vasyl Ekzemplyarskyi (1875–1933) was carried out. The educational, cultural and historical background of the formation of religious-philosophical and religious-publicist views of Kyiv philosophers is reproduced, the common origin of their creative intuitions is shown. The main similar research ideas, topics and directions of their scientific and educational activity are revealed. The similarity in the interpretation of one of the core ideas of their work – the Christian idea of the kingdom of God – is shown. The origin of this idea in the philosophical worldview of thinkers is admitted, the significance of this idea in their ethical and historicalphilosophical heritage is demonstrated. Both thinkers have distinctly similar interpretations of the themes of religious journalism, the core of which are: religious revival, the relationship between politics and religion and politics and morality, state-church relations in the Russian state, ways of church reformation. The inseparable unity of their philosophical and worldview foundations, theoretical principles with life, the practical implementation of the ideas advocated by the thinkers, which allowed them to preserve the integrity and organicity of their own personality, is shown. It was also demonstrated the importance for the development of philosophical thought of the unique communicative space created by Kyiv academic philosophers, the atmosphere of lively communication, within which similar philosophical and worldview intuitions, value-meaning principles and life guidelines were developed.