Russian Religious Philosophy Research Articles

Концепция преображения человека у Ницше и Владимира Соловьева и ее влияние на русскую религиозную философию

The study aims to show similarity and difference between anthropological ideas in Nietzsche’s and Solovyov’s philosophy and their influence on the Russian philosophy. Scientific novelty of the work lies in identifying and comparing the key aspects of the theory of the man’s transformation according to the considered philosophers. The article proves that despite difference in fundamental philosophical principles, Nietzsche’s teaching about the Übermensch and Solovyov’s teaching about love emphasise the man’s creative-theurgic ability aimed at ontological transformation of themselves and the world around them. As a result, it is shown that both Nietzsche and Solovyov asserted divine potential immanently inherent in the man, possibility of achieving the superhuman state by their own efforts and subsequent transformation of nature, which had a strong impact on the Russian religious philosophy.

Принцип соборности и взаимоотношения духовенства и паствы в православных приходах Российской империи второй половины XIX - начала XX в.

The paper examines realization of the conciliarism principle by concrete historical material. The article considers interpretation of the “conciliarism” concept in the Russian religious philosophy and analyses interrelation of the clergy and the laymen in Orthodox parishes at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the authors try to answer the question whether the conciliarism principle can be implemented empirically, within a certain historical period and within a certain parish. The following conclusions are justified: communal lifestyle has its positive and negative aspects, such as mutual control among the clergymen and the laymen; conciliarism is a theological, not social category.

Marian Zdziechowski and the Russian students at the Stefan Batory University in Wilno

The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between Professor Marian Zdziechowski and the students of Russian nationality at the Polish University of Stefan Batory. This scientist and thinker was the curator of the Russian Student Union and the student corporation “Ruthenia Vilnensis”. Zdziechowski’s participation in the activities of Russian student organizations and involvement in the fate of individual students is explored in the context of the scholar’s attention to Russian religious philosophy and his goodwill towards the Russian emigrates and minorities in Poland, and the rejection of communism. The main research material consisted of archival documents and publications in Vilnius interwar periodical press in Polish and Russian. The study showed that Zdziechowski was an ideological leader, a highest authority and a role model for Russian students in Wilno.

Russian Religious Philosophy and Silver Age Painting in the Aspect of the Contemplation Idea

The article considers the connection of the work of famous artists of the Silver age M.V. Nesterov and I.I. Levitan with the idea of spiritual contemplation in the Russian religious and philosophical thought of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the context of the idea of contemplation, the works of S.N. Bulgakov, N.A. Berdyaev, and I.A. Ilyin are updated. The author reveals that the heritage of Russian painters express deep aspiration to comprehend the connection between the earth and Heaven, to reflect the high beauty of the spiritual principles of life, perceived through the religious and philosophical idea of contemplation.

E.N. Trubetskoy on the Interrelation of the Sacred and the Aesthetic in Ancient Russian Iconography

The article studies the problem of interrelation of the cult and aesthetic components of iconography and analyzes the approach to its solution in the works of the representative of Russian religious philosophy of the early 20th century E. Trubetskoy.

The practice of self-nurturing in the concept of the Tyumen philosopher Y. M. Fyodorov

The subject of this research is the philosophy of the Tyumen philosopher Yuri Mikhailovich Fyodorov – a representative of the Tyumen philosophical tradition, who focused on the problems of ethics, namely practical implementation of the ethical in the context of development of the North and establishment of a new society from fundamentally different individuals. Tyumen philosophers were concerned with the question of how to form a single moral essence out of the agonistic society. For solving this problem, Yuri Mikhailovich Fyodorov turned to Neo-Platonism, cosmism, and Russian religious philosophy, as well as paid particular attention to the question of elevation of human to a moral entity. The ways for such subjectification proposed by Fedorov are examined in this article. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the philosopher is not widely known, as well as in the emphasis on the process of subjectification, epimeleia heautou in interpretation of M. Foucault, or the self-nurturing practices. It is illustrated that creativity, freedom, kindness and love are the key practices of self-nurturing which Y. M. Fyodorov indicated as the procedures of subjectification. From his perspective, these four concepts are the goal and practice for an individual, who seeks to surpass his own foundations. The philosophy of Y. M. Fyodorov aims to substantiate the unity of man with man, man with being; as well as attach meaning, value and vector to human life; contra pose something genuine, profound and eternal to the concepts that deprive an individual of the right to power over himself and the right to the long-term existence.

El misterio del poder en el pensamiento de N.A. Berdyaev: Un estudio literario y filosófico

El propósito de este artículo es replantear la cuestión del poder y su esencia en el contexto de cómo lo ve la filosofía religiosa rusa, en este caso, N. A. Berdyaev. Sus reflexiones cobran relevancia porque plantea el problema en un sentido universal, vinculándolo con la esencia del hombre y los hechos históricos que lo rodean. La ontología histórica se revela en la filosofía del pensador ruso como un misterio infinito, cuyas definiciones racionales son muy difíciles. La metodología de este trabajo está tomada de los trabajos del programa sobre la historia de la filosofía rusa de V. V. Zenkovsky y N. O. Lossky y consiste en crear una base comparativa para comparar los principales conceptos de poder en la filosofía occidental y la filosofía rusa. Incluso un análisis aproximado muestra que el gobierno elude el discurso y evita las definiciones racionales, de lo contrario sería posible explicar la revolución en Rusia por su carácter fundamental. El material del artículo puede ser utilizado en estudios sociales y antropológicos del poder, lo que aumenta y extiende su influencia incluso a las relaciones más simples pero en lugar de reducirla. Los creadores de nuevas épocas siempre enfrentan un nuevo tipo de responsabilidad en el sentido de que son responsables ante las generaciones vivas de cómo usan el poder y si es para bien o para mal.

Pāvela Florenska simbolisma laikmetīgums

The introduction outlines the problem: the views about the world outlook of the humankind changed radically from the verge of 19/20th century to the verge of the 20/21st century; the old paradigms must be changed to the new ones, but the relevant concepts are just developing. It expresses itself also in so called anthropological turn, when a person changes uncontrollably, rapidly and dangerously taking over the most important place in the global world system. Symbol is as a link between a word and an action, and it is an instrument for understanding the world, and a person plays an important role in it. The first section discusses the world outlook of Russian religious philosopher P. Florensky from the point of view of symbolism. It is based on the fundamentals of his world outlook: antinomy, life, the Unified. The second section is devoted to creativity in his life, which in an organic way links P. Florensky’s understanding about the world-outlook and life. The conclusions stress the contemporary aspects in P. Florensky’s symbolism expressed as: 1) spirituality; 2) aesthetics; 3) consubstantiality; 4) the dialogue with the Unified; 5) creativity in life. The research methods: hermeneutic and semiotic analysis of P. Florensky’s texts, critical analysis of the scientific literature.

«Об одном символе»: истоки и параллели. Статья вторая: Достоевский как символист

The article is devoted to the literary and philosophical origins of Sergei Durylin’s report “On a Symbol in Dostoevsky” (the report was read in 1926 at a meeting of the Commission for the Study of Dostoevsky at the Literary Section of GAKhN). The history of the report in the context of the Literary Section is considered. Аbstracts and debates on the report are published for the first time. The relationship of Durylin’s ideas with the complex of Dostoevsky’s interpretations, developed by both the Symbolists (G.I. Chulkov) and Russian religious philosophers (P.A. Florensky, A.F. Losev) is shown. Both the report “On a Symbol in Dostoevsky’s” and the subsequent report “Landscape in Dostoevsky’s” are devoted to an anthropological and Christological story, connected with the symbolism of the setting sun, the symbolism of “oblique rays”, and its embodiment in Dostoevsky’s novels. Both texts are a continuation and a development of the same theme. A landscape is an artist’s mapping of nature, the created world; interiors are the artist’s image of the anthropomorphic world, the human space. The ontological symbol receives its sociocultural projection: a landscape or an interior. The problem of the relationship between the mapping/image and the object of the image, the problem of the ontological status of reality and its embodiment in the artistic/mythopoetic language, reflected in the report, corresponded to the focus of GAKhN on the development of a new “language of things” and a new concept of the humanitarian knowledge. The article is timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of F.M. Dostoevsky, the 135th anniversary of S.N. Durylin, and the 100th anniversary of GAKhN.

«Об одном символе»: истоки и параллели. Статья вторая: Достоевский как символист

The article is devoted to the literary and philosophical origins of Sergei Durylin’s report “On a Symbol in Dostoevsky” (the report was read in 1926 at a meeting of the Commission for the Study of Dostoevsky at the Literary Section of GAKhN). The history of the report in the context of the Literary Section is considered. Аbstracts and debates on the report are published for the first time. The relationship of Durylin’s ideas with the complex of Dostoevsky’s interpretations, developed by both the Symbolists (G.I. Chulkov) and Russian religious philosophers (P.A. Florensky, A.F. Losev) is shown. Both the report “On a Symbol in Dostoevsky’s” and the subsequent report “Landscape in Dostoevsky’s” are devoted to an anthropological and Christological story, connected with the symbolism of the setting sun, the symbolism of “oblique rays”, and its embodiment in Dostoevsky’s novels. Both texts are a continuation and a development of the same theme. A landscape is an artist’s mapping of nature, the created world; interiors are the artist’s image of the anthropomorphic world, the human space. The ontological symbol receives its sociocultural projection: a landscape or an interior. The problem of the relationship between the mapping/image and the object of the image, the problem of the ontological status of reality and its embodiment in the artistic/mythopoetic language, reflected in the report, corresponded to the focus of GAKhN on the development of a new “language of things” and a new concept of the humanitarian knowledge. The article is timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of F.M. Dostoevsky, the 135th anniversary of S.N. Durylin, and the 100th anniversary of GAKhN.

Божественные законы и чудеса природы: естественная теология русского спиритуализма конца XIX – начала XX в.

Russian spiritualism movement of the 19th – early 20th century remains an understudied area of current scientific research. Its philosophical and theological aspects deserve more attention due to its marginal role on the epistemological borders between science and religion. The article aims to reveal the Russian spiritualists’ vision of the relationship between God and nature and for the first time overviews and analyses debates in Russian spiritualism about the problems of the philosophy of religion. The article considers spiritualists’ insight in the essence of “miracle” and “law”, interpretation of evolution as a teleological process; evaluation of different Divine Attributes and their role in theological criticism, and also spiritualists’ solution to the Problem of Evil and Suffering. The natural theology of modern spiritualism constitutes part of the general intellectual movement aimed to bring into harmony both scientific and religious worldviews in the second half of the 19th century. Works of both foreign and Russian spiritualists demonstrate that the sacralization of laws and “naturalization” of miracles were used by spiritualists to preserve the religious worldview at the time when monism and evolutionism established itself as the central ontological and main historical programmes in natural science. Still, the detailed analysis of philosophical aspects of Russian spiritualism challenges its widely-known characteristic as “synthesis” of science and religion and its simplistic characterization as being pantheistic in its nature. The article for the first time puts emphasis on the theistic current in Russian spiritualism and also highlights the key theme of its interaction with Russian philosophical thought – the survival of human personality. It encourages discussions on the role of engagement between spiritualistic movement and Russian religious philosophy at the turn of the 19th сentury.

АНГЕЛОЛОГИЯ В РУССКОЙ ИНТЕЛЛЕКТУАЛЬНОЙ ИСТОРИИ: НЕСКОЛЬКО ЭПИЗОДОВ

Reflections on the nature of angels in Russian religious philosophy are inseparable from political theology and reflection on scientific and technical achievements. Based on the works of N. Boldyrev, A. Losev and S. Averintsev, the article proves that the doctrine of angels was to spiritualize technical progress and not less to preserve humanitarian culture in the field of symbolic-mathematical speculation. Therefore, Russian angelology is dialogical and controversial: it relies on the hermeneutics of a symbol, while symbolism is considered as part of intellectual production parallel to technical invention. It is proved how exactly the reception of ideas related to the parameters of perception and a certain style of intellectual reasoning made it possible to single out questions about angels into a separate area of philosophical problematization. Accordingly, the study of how exactly the questions were thought of as autonomous, makes it possible to clarify how Russian thought could assert the autonomy of orders of philosophical reasoning

Images of Secularization in Russian Religious Philosophy at the Second Half of the 19th Century

Images of Secularization in Russian Religious Philosophy at the Second Half of the 19th Century

«Философия жизни» А.Ф. Лосева: новые материалы к теме. Лосев А.Ф. Жизнь. Публикация и подготовка текста Е.А. Тахо-Годи

The paper focuses its attention on A.F. Losev’s ‘philosophy of life’, which is one of the key components of his creative heritage. The main stages of development of Losev’s ‘philosophy of life’ are identified: the early period, which is charac­terized by his interest in experimental psychology, in interpretation of percep­tions of the world and in music as an art analogous to life itself; the period of the 1920s when The Dialectics of Myth and Supplement to ‘The Dialectics of Myth’ are created drawing a phenomenologo-dialectical picture not only of social life – the concrete representations of various ‘relative mythologies’, but also of an ‘ab­solute mythology’ – the life of the Absolute Itself; the 1930s–1940s when, along­side the artistic presentation of the author’s ‘philosophy of life’ in philosopho-musical prose, attempts are made to formulate strict dialectics of life as a philo­sophical category, to determine its correlation with such categories as ‘essence’, ‘existence’, ‘non-existence’, ‘consciousness’, ‘the unconscious’, ‘miracle’, ‘genus’, ‘persona’, ‘genius’, ‘tragedy’, ‘death’, ‘instinct’, ‘mystic knowledge’, etc. The paper raises a question of the evolution of Losev’s ‘philosophy of life’, which is evidenced by the transfer of the logical emphasis – in the early 1940s in the short story “Life” (the author’s title is “On contempt for death”) – from such a critical for Losev’s philosophy of the late 1920s category as ‘miracle’ to the category of ‘sacrifice’, and also by abandonment of the category ‘myth’. It outlines the philosophical tradition of interpretation of ‘philosophy of life’ in Russian religious philosophy: E.N. Trubetskoy – S.L. Frank – A.F. Losev. At­tention is drawn to the connection of Losev's philosophy of life with his mathe­matical studies of infinitesimals, which makes to recall not only the ideas of G. Cohen, but also Leo Tolstoy’s ‘philosophy of history’. Losev’s notes of 1933 on the relationship between soul and body, as well as a strict dialectical notes notes “Life” (created approximately in the second half of the 1930s) are concep­tualized for the first time and introduced for scholarly use. The text of these notes is reproduced from the manuscript copies in the personal archive of the philosopher. All conjectures are placed in angle brackets, the spellingand the punctuation of the original has been preserved.

What is dark matter? An attempt at a theological answer

Based on the analysis of modern scientific data, the teachings of Russian religious thinkers about “Sophia” and S. L. Frank on reality, the biblical text concerning the creation of the world on the first day shows that dark matter is a special reality in the world. Modern science claims that there is a special “dark matter” in the world, which occupies up to ninety-five percent of the mass of all matter, but its properties are still unknown. Russian religious philosophers show that the creation of the world and matter by God was preceded by the birth of uncreated Sophia, the creation of created Sophia, or the “emanation” of “uncreated reality” and the creation of “created reality”. Based on the first words of the Bible, the assumption is made that the first verse “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1: 1) should be understood not as the creation of the real heaven and the real earth, which is stated in the Bible just below, but as a creation of the angelic world and some kind of special earth, which, apparently, actually is what today in science is referred to as dark matter. The article discusses its properties.

Стал ли Вл.С. Соловьев католиком (историко-философский анализ)

In the article, the author examines the religious and philosophical views of Vladimir Solovyov during the period of his appeal to the Roman Catholic Church as a rock and center of unification of Christian humanity. Based on materials from the Vatican archives and periodicals of the Holy See, it was reconstructed how Catholic world perceived Solovyov’s project of ecclesiastic union. In particular, the question of Solovyov’s conversion in Catholicism was studied. The author points to unknown document on the preparation of special instructions for Solovyov by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the author analyses the reception of the idea of the Universal Church by Russian religious philosophers of the early 20th century. It is emphasized that they did not accept the idea of Solovyov’s conversion to Catholicism and pointed to the fundamental religious and philosophical significance the idea of the Universal Church as a mystical unity of the Eastern and Western Churches. Thus, the article shows that the religious and philosophical ideas of Solovyov were closely related to his sociocultural and political views. He was a person who adopted Christianity as a fundamental principle of being and a key driving force of history.

Apologetic and educational tasks of Orthodox theology in regards to F. M. Dostoevsky’s spiritual insights (on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth)

The article attempts to define the most important tasks of modern Orthodox theology by analyzing the spiritual insights of the great Russian writer and philosopher F. M. Dostoevsky. The thinker wrote about the need to educate the Russian people in a Christian spirit in order for them to fulfill their worldwide mission. Russian university theology today is being formed in the conditions of worldview, ideological and religious pluralism. Differentiation of theological science and education on the basis of confessions is optimal in the current situation according to the author of the article. For Orthodox theology, the theoretical and methodological foundation should be, first of all, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, the richest experience of Eastern Christianity transmitted to Ancient Rus by Byzantium, patristic works and the works of a great many brilliant Orthodox theologians. Also, the spiritual and intellectual achievements of Russian religious philosophers, who, not without mistakes, strove to transfer the richest heritage of Orthodox thought into the secular language should be included. The analysis of Dostoevsky’s literary works, diaries, and notebooks, one of the most distinctive representatives of Russian metaphysics, determined the conclusion of the author of the article that for modern Orthodox theology, the most important tasks are apologetic and enlightenment. They are aimed at protecting the Christian faith from the multitude of myths that developed during the period of apostasy. In addition, these tasks are meant to cultivate knowledge about Orthodoxy and other traditional religions for Russia, both among young people and the older generations.

An intellectual plein air: a walk through the Rozanov places of Yelets

This paper is an original reconstruction of the Yelets text of the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov. The author draws up a map of Rozanov’s addresses in Yelets and conducts an intellectual plein air over them, inviting students to it. During an intellectual walk along provincial Yelets, an attempt is made to reconstruct Rozanov’s Yelets routes. Each place, marked during the plein air could be described by Rozanov in his texts. This form of academic dialogue is held for the first time and can serve as an alternative to traditional classroom forms of communication. The author sees the intellectual plein air as an attempt to capture and describe the images of the departing Yelets in the way the Russian philosopher might have seen it. Any timely fixation of the memory of Rozanov today turns out to be the correct tactical decision. The current Yelets is gradually giving in to the impulses of modernization. In addition to the intellectual temptations of new readings of Rozanov’s texts in the framework of this plein air, this form of academic dialogue, taken outside the framework of the university audience, solves another problem. The author considers new aesthetic horizons of the familiar ethnic landscape. Yelets expands anew, containing the memory of an outstanding representative of Russian culture, and becomes a part of world culture.

АКСИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ АСПЕКТЫ ПРАВОСЛАВНОГО И ФИЛОСОФСКОГО ТЕИЗМА (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ФИЛОСОФИИ В.Д. КУДРЯВЦЕВА-ПЛАТОНОВА)

The article analyzes the transcendental method applied to the axiology of Russian religious philosophy on the example of V.D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov’s works. The author offers a description of the contradiction between the transcendental method in the form in which it was implemented in Platonism and Kantianism as variants of non-Christian philosophizing, and Orthodox theism. Platonism and Kantianism tried to justify such a variant of the relationship between the transcendent and the immanent, which can be called transcendentism. In axiological terms, transcendentism represents the sphere of values as something that belongs to a special world: in Platonism, the sphere of values is identical to the sphere of ideas; in the Kantian tradition, it is placed in the consciousness of a conditional transcendental subject. Both versions of philosophizing lead to the divorce of the spiritual and material principles of the world due to their abstraction, and not concreteness. The author concludes That V...

АРХАИЧЕСКИЙ ПЛАСТ РУССКОЙ РЕВОЛЮЦИИ В ИДЕЙНОМ ПОЛЕ РУССКОЙ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ ФИЛОСОФИИ

This paper attempts to find out how the entire preceding course of Russian history predetermined the October Revolution’s outcome. With this aim, the structures and character of the Russian Revolution were analyzed by comparing the basic tenets of the theory of modified inversion cycles of historical development, introduced by the Russian sociologist A.S. Akhiezer, with the philosophical ideas of the representatives of Russian religious philosophy. It was suggested that the dominant Universalist view of revolution, with its idealization, should be replaced by M. Foucault’s singular “intermittent” method. As a result, the ideological affinity between the views of the modern liberal historical project on the Russian Revolution and the basic ideas of the philosophers of the Silver Age of Russian culture was revealed. Particular attention was paid to the “underdeveloped and undisclosed” character of personality in Russia (as understood by N.A. Berdyaev), which manifested itself most clearly in the phenomenon of the Revolution of 1917 and led to the triumph of pre-state and pre-political ideals of a traditional society. The legacy of Russian religious philosophy was reinterpreted by comparing it with the ideas of modern liberal philosophy of history.