REVIEWS 343 de Courten, Manon. History,Sophiaand theRussianNation:A Reassessment of Vladimir Solov'ev's Viewson Histoy and his Social Commitment. European University Studies, Series 3, vol. 996. Peter Lang, Bern, 2004. 532 pp. Figures.Tables. Notes. Bibliography.Summary. C48.oo (paperback). MANONDE COURTEN is to be warmly congratulated on her sustained and admirablythoroughworkon the philosopherVladimirSolov'ev,which focuses on his very complex understanding of history. History greatly engaged Solov'ev'sattention throughout his working life, being, from the very outset, an integralelement in his writingson the distinctivenessof Christianity,both as a divinelyrevealedtruthand as a foundationfor human cultureand ethics. Manon de Courten explains how Solov'ev sought to adhere to a traditional, Church-basedand 'mainstream'readingof Christianrevelation,where history undeniably plays a special role (hence the possibilityof 'sacralhistory'),and this she calls his 'theology of history'.He furthersought to provide a modern, philosophicallycoherent account of the historicalprocess, and this constitutes his 'philosophy of history'. de Courten proposes that Solov'ev was working towardsa synthesisof these two perspectives(or 'registers',as she calls them), a synthesiswhich, had it been completed,would fullyhave reflectedSolov'ev's understandingof the beneficent action or role of the Divine Sophia in the unfolding of human history.This element she calls his 'sophiologyof history' (p. 19). This study provides an admirable exposition of Solov'ev'sideas, showing, interalia, the author's awareness of his many sources for inspirationand his equally numerous polemical opponents. Her work can be considered a fine example of the extremely advanced and scholarlytreatmentwhich Solov'ev's ideas tend to receive nowadays, and in this connection one should also mention the recent Englishtranslationsof his worksby BorisJakim and Vladimir Wozniuk. de Courten's study is about as far removed as could possibly be from the lofty and at the same time claustrophobic mix of mystification, anthroposophy and hagiography to be found in Paul Allen's now remoteseeming and dated biography of Solov'ev (Vladimir Soloviev, RussianMystic, Blauvelt, NY, I978), published at a time when serious engagement with the philosopher'sideas was at a particularlylow point. The subtitle of this study mentions not only history but also Solov'ev's 'social commitment'. This is an extremely welcome aspect of de Courten's work: employing a 'case study' approach, she pays due attention to the philosopher'svariousinterventionsin the contentiouspublic issuesof his day, issues and debates whose practical outcome he clearly sought to influence (pp. 275-483). Her five chosen case studiesof Solov'ev'sreflectionson the contemporarypublic sphere are as follows: the assassinationof Tsar Alexander II on I March i88i and its aftermath;the Old Believers;theJewish Question; the Polish Question; and the famine of I89I-92. Solov'ev'smost immediate, most active and sustained intervention is evident in the case of the famine. This is quite natural,given the urgency of the situation,but here de Courten brings out many points which, by contrast, highlight the nature of his other interventions.What emerges from the remaining four case studies (detailed and carefullyhoned as they are)is what one might call Solov'ev's'backto first 344 SEER, 84, 2, 2oo6 principles'stance,his sustainedinsistenceon the need to 'ground'any contemporary problem or polemic in its broader theological and historicalcontext. His defence of the persecutedJews of I88osand I89osRussiawas consistently outspoken and brave, and he cared passionately for the flourishing of the Jewish people; nevertheless, argues de Courten, 'it seems that he blended Jewish messianic thought with the nineteenth-centuryphilosophicalhistorical conception of the historicmission of a nation, and applied this to the Russian empire, on whose soil Christiansociety had to be realised' (pp. 395-96). De Courten reinforcesthis point, saying:'In the end, his treatmentof theJewish question was instrumentaland he integratedsome aspects of it into his own agenda' (p. 398). It is this order of knowledge, detail and discernmentwhich puts de Courten'swork up among the most valuable studies of Solov'evnow availableto us. Without wishing in any way to minimize the scale of Dr de Courten's achievement, I should mention the extremely favourablemilieu and circumstances in which she carried out her doctoral research. The University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands(recentlyrenamed Radboud University)was the location of a large four-yearresearch project on 'Vladimir Solov'ev and...