Russian Religious Research Articles

Independence of thought and national sentiment in the Russian Religious Renaissance

Independence of thought and national sentiment in the Russian Religious Renaissance

В.С. Соловьев и цивилизационный выбор России

The attention is focused on the idea that the modern phase in the Russian philosophical and social thinking is characterized by the discourse on civilizational choice of Russia. Therewith, addressing the Russian religious and philosophical tradition is deemed to be relevant. The central personality of the Russian religious philosophy is Vladimir S. Solovyov – the ideological founder of the all-unity philosophy. His contemplation on multiple topics became significant for the Russian society of his time as well as of the modern days. It is stipulated, that one of the central topics for the Russian society is the problem of correlation of western and eastern elements of spiritual culture and historical development of Russia. Contemplation on this problem based on the creative heritage of Vladimir Solovyov makes his standpoint relevant in the current stage. The opinion that Solovyov's solution to the “East-West” dichotomy is based on the acknowledgement of universal christian values as the highest factor of historical development is being sustained. This allowed the founder of the all-unity to stipulate the highest ideals of spiritual and moral perfection as a goal of the progress of the society, to highlight the threat of spiritual crisis, to anticipate catastrophic events of the following historical period. The universalistic approach of Vladimir Solovyov presumes the inclusion of Russia into the context of the European Christian culture. The philosopher assumed for Russia a task of “global synthesis” of western and eastern values in global scale. Detailed ways of solving this task were utopian. The conclusion is made that the relevance of the philosopher's standpoint for the present is constituted by the vision of main tendencies in spiritual and social life. The all-unity philosophy is deemed to be productive to justify the general Russian identity of the present.

The Origins of the Idea of “Civilizational” Multipolarity in Russian Religious Thought (from 19<sup>th</sup> to First Half of 20<sup>th</sup> Century)

The article explores the development of the concept of «civilizational» multipolarity in Russian religious thought from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. This notion of «civilizational» multipolarity suggests that power centers, beyond forming a geopolitical balance, also represent distinct civilizations. During the first half of the 19th century, Russian conservatism was predominantly Eurocentric and semi-colonial. However, in the latter half of the century, Russian religious thinkers began to recognize the plurality of civilizations and their potential to emerge as independent power centers, thereby reevaluating Russia's role in the world. Thinkers like Nikolay Danilevsky, Vladimir Lamansky, and Konstantin Leontyev progressively moved away from a colonial mindset, leading to the crystallization of the idea of «civilizational» multipolarity.At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, thinkers such as Vladimir Gringmut, Lev Tikhomirov, Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, and Sergey Syromyatnikov further advanced these ideas. They identified an «awakening of the East» and advocated for Russia to align with Eastern civilizational powers in anticipation of an imminent world war. Post-1917 revolution, the concept of «civilizational» multipolarity persisted in the Eurasianist thought of the 1920s and 1930s, which is a focal point of this article. Leaders of the Eurasianist movement, such as Prince Nikolay Trubetskoy and Petr Savitsky, developed the doctrine of autarkic «worlds»-civilizations, envisioned as large economic blocs unified by common culture, ideology, and centralized authority. Religious ideas and rhetoric, including the trope of «Babylonian confusion», played a significant role in the Eurasianists' justification of their preferred international order.

The Origins of the Idea of “Civilizational” Multipolarity in Russian Religious Thought (from 19th to First Half of 20th Century)

The article explores the development of the concept of «civilizational» multipolarity in Russian religious thought from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. This notion of «civilizational» multipolarity suggests that power centers, beyond forming a geopolitical balance, also represent distinct civilizations. During the first half of the 19th century, Russian conservatism was predominantly Eurocentric and semi-colonial. However, in the latter half of the century, Russian religious thinkers began to recognize the plurality of civilizations and their potential to emerge as independent power centers, thereby reevaluating Russia's role in the world. Thinkers like Nikolay Danilevsky, Vladimir Lamansky, and Konstantin Leontyev progressively moved away from a colonial mindset, leading to the crystallization of the idea of «civilizational» multipolarity.At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, thinkers such as Vladimir Gringmut, Lev Tikhomirov, Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, and Sergey Syromyatnikov further advanced these ideas. They identified an «awakening of the East» and advocated for Russia to align with Eastern civilizational powers in anticipation of an imminent world war. Post-1917 revolution, the concept of «civilizational» multipolarity persisted in the Eurasianist thought of the 1920s and 1930s, which is a focal point of this article. Leaders of the Eurasianist movement, such as Prince Nikolay Trubetskoy and Petr Savitsky, developed the doctrine of autarkic «worlds»-civilizations, envisioned as large economic blocs unified by common culture, ideology, and centralized authority. Religious ideas and rhetoric, including the trope of «Babylonian confusion», played a significant role in the Eurasianists' justification of their preferred international order.

“Nature is All Personal”: St Francis of Assisi in the Ontology of Mikhail Prishvin

This article analyses Franciscan ideas in the work of M. Prishvin from 1908–1953 in the context of European and Russian Francisciana of the Silver Age. The texts reveal direct and hidden references to the image of St Francis of Assisi and Franciscan texts (The Canticle of Brother Sun and Vita Prima by Thomas of Celano, and Little Flowers of St Francis). It is shown that Franciscan texts become a source of direct, ontological, and personalistic experience of the world as a beautiful and miraculous integrity for Prishvin, creating a paradisiacal harmony between man and creation. St Francis’ compassion for nature became one of Prishvin’s creative impulses in Ginseng (1933) and The Golden Horn (1934). The Franciscan experience of nature in its living reality and personalist uniqueness (nature as subject, not object) is one of the main sources of “kindred (merciful) attention”, Prishvin’s main ontological and life-creating principle. Prishvin polemicised against the opposite of Franciscanism, the utilitarian, object-oriented attitude towards nature in Soviet practice, in which the living, ontological, and personal reality of nature was perceived as an object and replaced by a “patriotic” and utilitarian ideology. In the 1940s, Prishvin returned to the cultural myth of St Francis as a renaissance figure, which emerged in the Russian religious and philosophical renaissance at the turn of the twentieth century; in this myth, St Francis, through his acceptance and justification of the world as God’s creation, overcomes medieval ascetic dualism (matter as evil, the gap between flesh and pirit) and expresses humanistic values (personalism and ontologism), thus uniting God and the world, Christianity and nature, Christianity and culture. For Prishvin’s concept of the integrity of being (the unity of the earthly and the heavenly, the flesh and the spirit), St Francis becomes one of the main sources. What also makes Prishvin similar to St Francis is the concept of joy, which the writer experiences ontologically as the essential basis of being. The image of St Francis becomes not only a literary but also an existential, ontological and creative response of the writer to the challenges of his time. Summing up his life, Prishvin defines his life-creative strategy and mission in the tragic twentieth century in the spirit of St Francis (‘life is happiness’).

The religious landscape amidst warfare in Ukraine: assessing the situation

The purpose of the academic paper is to provide a general description of the milestone events in the religious and church life of Ukraine in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, with an emphasis on tendencies after the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Given that the war is ongoing, we focused on issues related to the receipt of the Tomos by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the religious component of the “Russkiy mir” policy. Sociological indicators from monitoring the religious situation in Ukraine after the full-scale invasion demonstrate the following trends: war, especially a full-scale invasion, has impacted all spheres of life but religion continues to remain a significant factor in socio-humanitarian life; religious diversity is maintained with the predominance of Orthodox communities; regional differences on the religious map of Ukraine persist; after the full-scale invasion, there has been a slight increase in the number of people identifying as religious, and the number of citizens seeking communication with clergy has increased, primarily for psycho-emotional relief and support. The importance of religion and the Church in humanitarian missions, balancing society’s spiritual condition, and helping people in need of material and other support, such as volunteer labor or a refugee shelter, is becoming increasingly clear. The war has significantly forced many believers and spiritual leaders of denominations to reconsider their attitude to the war and civic engagement in the war. These tendencies are especially noticeable in the Protestant environment. In the territories occupied by Russia, believers of different communities and denominations continue to be harassed, religious freedom is violated, and a deliberate policy of incorporating religious space into the mainstream of Russian religious and church policy within the framework of the ideology of the “Russkiy mir” and the Russian Orthodox Church is being pursued.

Философско-психологическое наследие Ивана Александровича Ильина (к 140-летию ученого)

The article is dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding scientist, thinker, jurist, public figure, the brightest representative of the Russian religious and philosophical tradition of the 20th century Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin. Before his eyes, historical events were unfolding that shocked and changed the minds of people. They inspired the scientist to comprehend the archetypal in man: the problems of good and evil, masculinity and femininity, conscience, service, sacrifice, heroism, love for the Motherland, wisdom, holiness. He created a holistic philosophical and psychological concept of personality, permeated not only with a deep interest in a person, but also with internal unity and harmony. The values embedded in it are opposed to the pragmatic-individualistic ones that are universally dominant today. For this reason, attention to the personality and creativity of the thinker increases every year. Multiple public discussions, frequent citations, appeal to his ideas, especially those related to forecasts and theoretical developments regarding the future of Russia, its national tasks, testify to their importance, prospects, and, in the context of the heat of geopolitical conflicts, their super-urgency. The article discusses the philosophical and psychological ideas of Ilyin regarding the problems of a person's spiritual and moral experience, the psychology of communication, the psychology of conflict, legal consciousness, national identity, the psychology of moral and patriotic feelings, the psychology of education and pedagogical psychology, the causes of the spiritual and moral crisis of mankind and the psychological aspects of the exit out of him. The originality and uniqueness of his approach lies in the emphasis on the national, historical identity of Russia.

Russian Religious Reformation Process of Early 20th Century through Prism of Ideological Quests of Fr. Mikhail (Semenov)

The article examines the development of views on the reform of Russian Orthodoxy in the early 20th century by one of the prominent and unconventional religious thinkers of that time, Father Mikhail (Pavel Vasilievich Semenov, 1873-1916). It traces his journey from official Orthodoxy to the movement for religious renewal, and then to the Belokrinitskaya (or Austrian) Old Believer hierarchy, after which he becomes the main ideologist of “Golgotha Christianity” — a unique religious-reformist movement advocating for the revival of social and moral ideals of the early Christian community. As contemporaries noted, these “oscillations” of Father Mikhail (Semenov) became a natural expression of his intense quest for the kerygma of Christianity, capable of overturning the social ontology of the Orthodox Church — finding an Orthodox formula for individualizing faith and making the world the goal of salvation. The author concludes that the life path and ideological quests of Father Mikhail (Semenov) reflect an important regularity of the Russian reformation process. This regularity lies in the fact that the search for “foundations” of faith, theological foundations of doctrine, or religious foundations of culture and society is simultaneously associated with the actualization of a fundamentalist impulse in religion and to some extent with the modernization of the religious complex (this is a kind of religious swing: “fundamentalism — modernism,” “Old Believers — religious renewal,” etc.).

МАТЕРИАЛЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО КРУГЛОГО СТОЛА ПАМЯТИ ПРОФЕССОРА НИКОЛАЯ ЛЬВОВИЧА МУСХЕЛИШВИЛИ

On October 13, 2023, within the framework of the VI Congress of the Russian Religious Studies Society, an international round table in memory of professor Nikolai Lvovich Muskhelishvili was held at the Orthodox St. Tikhon‘s University for the Humanities in Moscow. Due to the hybrid format of presentations, the round table was attended by former colleagues of Nikolai L. Muskhelishvili from Russia, Italy, Great Britain, Canada and Ukraine. The roundtable was moderated by Mikhail Maksimovich Bazlev and Alexey Viktorovich Yudin. The article contains edited materials presented by the participants of the round table, restored and edited from the record. Their purpose is to attempt to restore the image of professor Muskhelishvili, the tasks he set and the meanings that unfolded around him and thanks to him.

A.N. Muravyov, the Younger Brother of M.N. Muravyov-Vilensky, as Phenomenon of Russian Religious Life

The article is devoted to the study of life and work of Andrey Muravyov (1806–1874) who was one of the signifi cant spiritual Orthodox writers, church historians, pilgrims and poets. He was Honorary Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences since 1963 and contributed substantially to Kiev historical center preservation. He can be considered a unique phenomenon of theological thought of the Synodal period.

The philosophical idea of a new Christian civilization in Russian Religious Philosophy

The article argues, using the thought of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Berdyaev as an example, that the search for the genesis of the current political ideology, guiding the armed conflict launched by Russia in Ukraine, in the thought represented by Russian religious philosophers of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, i.e., the founders of a strictly national philosophy, is quite superficial and essentially unfounded. For the idea of a new Christian civilization with a new state order and a new role for the Orthodox Church, which they formulated, was an idea of such a Christian reality, the fulfilment of which, in their view, could only occur at a very distant time, actually at the end of human history, and required an earlier spiritual and moral revolution.

Концепт «Грех» в русской языковой ментальности - фреймовый подход

In the article, the concept of «Sin» is subjected to a comprehensive study and description, which is the ethical dominant of the Russian religious and Orthodox picture of the world, which determines the most important, spiritual and value sphere of the people's worldview, as well as its linguistic representation.
 Using the method of linguistic modeling, we have constructed a frame structure that represents the concept of «Sin» in both religious and everyday types of consciousness frame. The semantic structure of the concept «Sin» was presented graphically, in the form of diagrams.
 On the basis of Russian phraseological units, using component analysis, semantic features, motivating features and motivating factors for the functioning of the frame «Sin» were determined.
 The frame structure of Russian proverbs with the lexeme «Sin» was developed, one of the criteria of cultural significance of which is the frame nature of their semantics, due to their ability to reflect generalized situations.
 The results of the study can be used in special courses on cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology and lexicology, as well as in a practical course of the Russian language.

The paradoxical anchoring of Kojève’s philosophizing in the tradition of Russian religious philosophy

The subject of this paper is Alexandre Kojève’s relationship to Russian Religious Philosophy, which is characterized by a paradoxical contrast between Kojève’s openly critical judgment of it, on the one hand, and the hidden, implicit influence of this philosophical tradition on his own atheistic philosophizing on the other. The hidden influence of Russian Religious Philosophy, Kojève’s engagement with the philosophical ideas of Vladimir Solovyov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, will be shown by two case studies. The first case is about Kojève’s “reshaping” and reevaluation of Solovyov’s principle of evil. The second case is about Kojève’s defense of Dostoevsky’s Man-God ideologues against their creator by critically rethinking Man-Godhood. The connection between these two cases is the question, if Kojève, while opposing Solovyov’s difference of Man-God and God-Man with something third, has actually moved beyond the Man-God ideology, or did he develop his own Man-God ideology. The essay concludes, with the assertion that Kojève remains with a revised Man-Godhood. This defense-revision is an important philosophical contribution to the polemics with Russian Religious Philosophy, but it is, at the same time, intimately connected with Kojève’s ideological agenda.

The question of human in the philosophy of archimandrite Theophan (Avsenev)

The article deals with the philosophical anthropology of the original Russian thinker, Archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church Theophan (Avsenev). He formulated the original philosophical doctrine of human, based on patristic theology, philosophy of Platonism and schellingian philosophical anthropology. The philosopher distinguishes between the human body, the physical component that connects human with the inorganic being and the world of plants and the spirit that connect human with the God. The worldly inclinations of the soul connect human with animals. And the spirit aspiring to God is the true essence of human. But since God is immense and unattainable in his essence, human reveals Godly perfection in the world as truth, beauty, and goodness. Theophan (Avsenev) reveals in philosophical anthropology an important moral aspect of his philosophical system, considering human mortality as a result of the deviation of existence from the original plan for it. Therefore, the philosophical system of Theophan (Avsenev) is considered in the context of the soteriological line of Russian moral philosophy. In philosophy Theophan (Avsenev) not only human, but the being needs to be saved. Thus, in the philosophy of Theophan (Avsenev) received an expression of all the most substantial features of the original Russian philosophy: desire for sobornost, ontologism, cosmologism, appeal to the person, the rejection of absolute death. Nevertheless, the original philosophical system of one of the most original representatives of the Kiev theological academic school of Archimandrite Theophan (Avsenev), which stood at the origins of the Russian religious and philosophical Renaissance, has not been studied and is a white spot on the map of the history of Russian philosophical culture. Of course, without addressing the gaps cannot build the big context of Russian philosophy, the relevance of the construction of which now pay attention to many important contemporary historians of Russian philosophy: for example, S. Khoruzhii, V. Varava, etc. It should be pointed out that a special role in the formation of the original Russian philosophy was played by the Russian theological academic tradition, which was a truly original and unique phenomenon. Thus, the study of philosophy Theophan (Avsenev) is not only important in the context of the history of Orthodox theology and Russian philosophy, but in the process of finding prospects of Russian philosophy and the ways of its development.

К ВОПРОСУ ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЯ ИДЕНТИФИКАЦИОННЫХ ЦЕННОСТЕЙ СЦЕНИЧЕСКОЙ РЕЧЕВОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

The relevance of the article is due to the conflict of values reflected in the theatrical forms of postmodernism and the performances of the domestic drama theater. The definition of the concept of "value" is clarified in relation to the theodicy of the Russian religious and philosophical problematics. The identification values of the stage speech culture are determined, as well as their main characteristics in the conditions of historical, socio-cultural and artistic transformations are revealed. The essential values are indicated by: literary centrism, lexico-stylistic normativity, speech dramatism.

From Desecularization to Sacralization of the Political Language: Religion and Historiosophy in Vladimir Putin’s Preparations for War

This article aims to analyze religious and mystical elements contained in Putin’s public statements by referring to selected examples characteristic of contemporary Russian identity politics. In order to demonstrate the importance of religious and mystical threads in Putin’s speeches, we chose five specific cases. The analysis of these statements indicates that religious and mystical motifs in Putin’s language are an attempt at self-creation for the purpose of domestic policy. We claim that this self-creation is more of an effort to strengthen Putin’s public support than proof that he borrows patterns for shaping Russia’s political life from the Russian religious and political tradition. Putin’s rhetoric is not so much a desire for an axiological renewal of Russian politics but an attempt to search for the new legitimization of the power system he created in confrontation with the West.

A page from Russian cosmology in the Trinitarian story of creation

This article approached the doctrine of the Trinity from the vantage point of the science and religion dialogue, because the issue of faith and reason is integral to this concept. This approach requires humility and silence. A page from the cosmology of the Russian Silver Age sheds light on the notorious schism of 1054 between the Western and the Eastern theologians on the Filioque issue, which manifests the lack of an apophatic and antinomistic approach. The issue is thus whether God is intrinsically part of nature and yet is its Creator and Redeemer. This question touches upon God’s transcendence and immanence, cataphatic and apophatic theology and even the complementarity of the two. Two protagonists of the ‘Russian Religious Renaissance’, Pavel Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), presupposed Christian faith and belief by giving theology preference to philosophy in this debate. Reality is seen as an antinomy and placed within the broader context of human cultural activity.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A socially oriented worldview was pursued that underscored the ontological priority of relationality. The conclusion was drawn from the Russian Orthodox theology that the doctrine of the Trinity has its roots in the God–human relationship in Christ by the (Holy) Spirit and it interprets the homoousios of the Godhead as Sophia and antinomianism as the most crucial features of this belief.

Nicholas Afanasiev’s Concept of Eucharistic Ecclesiology and Its Theological Impact

precis: A productive area of scholarship of the Russian Religious Renaissance is the reconsideration of the “two schools” dichotomy that has been broadly thought of as an explanation of its development. A better way to approach its study, however, is in a comprehensive way capturing critical details that escape the attention of crude categorizations. An aspect in which this is relevant is the development of the notion of eucharistic ecclesiology. Coined by Nicholas Afanasiev, it was an effort to reveal the eucharistic nature of unity in the church and, as such, its Christ-centeredness. In so doing, he effected a change in how the unity of the church is conceived. Afanasiev had a profound impact on the role of the Orthodox Church in the ecumenical movement. Highlighting this revives knowledge of the development of eucharistic ecclesiology in the modern Orthodox Church. Among Afanasiev’s contemporaries, Paul Evdokimov was influenced by this, adapting it to real-life situations in which knowledge of the centrality of the eucharist was relevant. In an ecumenical setting, the study of Afanasiev and Evdokimov offers the prospect of theological development in the present and the promise of the revival of productive engagement that has been beset by problems in recent decades.

The Problematic of the Imiaslav Disputes in Russian Religious Philosophy: Towards the Question of the Ecclesiastical and Social Ideal in the Discussions of the 1910s

The article examines the influence of the imyaslav disputes on Russian religious and philosophical thought at the beginning of the 20th century. The socio-political aspect of Russian religious philosophy and the problems of relations between the Church, the state and society in the context of the “religious Renaissance” of the Silver Age are touched upon. The author dwells on the positions of two well-known philosophers who actively participated in the polemic around the imyaslav movement, namely N.A. Berdyaev and V.F. Ern. The article traces the similarities and differences in the theses of the two thinkers related to the “Athos affair”, and draws conclusions about the connection between the positions they formulated with the common worldview constants of both philosophers and, in particular, their idea of the ecclesiastical and social ideal.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought

Book Review of Caryl Emerson, George Pattison, and Randall A. Poole (eds): The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, 752 pp.