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Faith As the Locus Philosophicus of Russian Thought1

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Faith As the Locus Philosophicus of Russian Thought1 Teresa Obolevitch The Pontifical University of John Paul II, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Krakow, Poland) Faith as the Locus Philosophicus of Russian Thought1 In the first half of the 20th century, Nicolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) complained that “The Christian world doesn’t know Orthodoxy too well .”2 One should add that at that time Orthodoxy was not well known in the West or in an Eastern Europe which was ruled by Com- munist parties. In recent years, however, the situation has changed immensely. Interest in Orthodoxy, as well as in philosophy which has been shaped on the basis of Orthodoxy (primarily Russian thought), continues to grow. In order to introduce the main topic of this book I will present some of the aspects of faith which we can distinguish in Russian religious philosophy. In turn, the authors of the articles collected in this volume will analyze the different themes concern- ing the relationship between the particular dimensions of faith in it- self and reason . 1 This paper is a modified English version of my articleWiara jako locus philosophicus myśli rosyjskiej first published in:Rosyjska metafizyka religijna, eds. T. Obolevitch, W. Kowalski, Biblos, Tarnów 2009, pp. 45–56. 2 N . Berdyaev, The Truth of Orthodoxy, trans . A . Smirensky, http://www .chebucto . ns.ca/Philosophy/Sui-Generis/Berdyaev/essays/orthodox.htm. 8 Teresa Obolevitch 1. Between logos and ratio – the specific nature of Russian thought Berdyaev noticed that “Orthodoxy did not have its Scholastic age, it experienced only the age of Patristics.”3 For this reason, Russian re- ligious thinkers, inspired by Orthodoxy, appealed to the legacy of the Greek Fathers of the Church and shared their interest in the Platonic tradition. One should also remember the other origins of Russian thought: German idealism (especially the systems of Schelling and Hegel), German mysticism (F . Baader, E . Swedenborg, J . Boehme), and finally, the Russian struggles with Kantianism and positivism. Religious themes have been a common element of Russian thought: “it was religion which has created and is still creating ‘a high- voltage metaphysical field’ which serves as inspiration and stimulus for philosophical reflection.”4 That is why the border between theolo - gy and philosophy is indistinguishable. “In Russia – as Paul Evdoki- mov (1900–1970) wrote – both a theologian who overcomes the tradi- tional teaching and a philosopher who thinks about the last events, are called by the term ‘the religious thinkers’.”5 The notion “religious” is not any additional characteristic of Russian philosophy, but its in- tegral element .6 3 Ibidem . 4 Е.Н. Некрасова, Живая истина. Метафизика человеческого бытия в русской религиозной философии ХХ века, Мартис, Москва 1997, p. 7. 5 P . Evdokimov, La connaissance de Dieu selon la tradition orientale: l’enseignement patristique liturgique et iconographique, Desclée De Brouwer, Paris 1988, p . 84 . 6 Berdyaev claimed that even Marxism was adopted in Russia for its quasi-religious character . See N . Berdyaev, The Religious Foundations of Bolshevism (From the Re- ligious Psychology of the Russian People), http://www .berdyaev .com/berdiaev/berd_ lib/1917_275 .html . Cf . idem, The Russian Idea, trans . K . Lampert, The Macmillan Company, New York 1948, p . 252: “The Russian people belong to the religious type and are religious in their spiritual make-up . Religious unrest is characteristic even of the unbelievers among them. Russian atheism, nihilism, materialism have acquired a religious colouring; Russians who belong to the working masses of the people, even when they have abandoned Orthodoxy, have continued to search for God and for divine truth and to enquire into the meaning of life.” See also G. Nivat, Aspects religieux de l’athée russe, “Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique” 1988, 29, 3–4, pp. 415–425. Faith as the Locus Philosophicus of Russian Thought 9 Russian philosophy – as its creators accentuate – oscillates be- tween the Ancient Greek idea of Logos (therefore sapient, religious reflection) and the Modern Europeanratio (or speculative research) .7 According to Vladimir Ern (1882–1917), Ratio is a result of schematic abstraction . (…) Knowledge of Logos is attained in a completely different way . (…) The essence of Logos in- volves its divinity. It is not the subjective human assumption but the objective divine principle.8 Most Russian authors tended to recognize this divine principle as a fundamental source of philosophy as a whole. As a consequence, in the Russian philosophical understanding of Logos issues concern- ing man, being, cosmos, cognition, truth, morality etc . were focused on the problem of God. In particular, the question of faith constituted a locus philosophicus, the starting point of Orthodox philosophical reflection. 2. Faith and Cognition 2.1. Faith as an integrative factor: the epistemological aspect-I What is faith according to the Eastern Christian tradition? Greek and Byzantine writers and then Russian philosophers stressed that faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1), or “the direct confirmation of that what could not 7 A. Лосев, Русская философия, [in:] idem, Философия. Мифология. Культура, Издательство политической литературы, Москва 1991, p. 215. 8 В. Эрн, Нечто о Логосе, русской философии и научности по поводу нового философского журнала “Логос”, [in:] idem, Сочинения, Правда, Москва 1991, pp . 78–79 . See also V .V . Maliavin, Vladimir Ern and the Quest for a Universal Phi- losophy in Russia, “Tamkang Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences” 2001, 9, pp . 85–115 . 10 Teresa Obolevitch be verified in usual way, i.e. through sensory experience or rational thinking .”9 Faith is pre-discursive, intuitive cognition of the divine re- ality . At the centre of this cognition lies not reason, but mind (νους) which is identified with “heart,” that is an organ of the inner, spiritual integration of the person . The Byzantine theologian, St Gregory Pala- mas (1296–1359) wrote: We ourselves know exactly that our rational part is not confined within us as in a container, for it is incorporeal, nor is it outside of us, for it is conjoined to us; but it is in the heart, as in an instrument. (…) And the great Macarius says also, “The heart directs the entire organism, and when grace gains possession of the heart, it reigns over all the thoughts and all the members; for it is there, in the heart, that the mind and all the thoughts of the soul have their seat .” Thus our heart is the place of the rational faculty, the first rational organ of the body .10 The cognition of God – theognosis (resp . cardiognosis) is not a metaphysical speculation about the nature of God, but a living ex- perience of His presence . Cognition through faith – cardiognosis – does not stop at the admission of the cognized Subject; it should lead to the radical conversion (μετάνοια) of thinking and life style.11 Hence, while in the Christian West the discussions on the concept of truth were conducted from a theoretico-epistemological perspec- tive, in the East the issue of truth concerned a true (i .e . moral) atti- tude. In the 19th century Russia, this concept of cognition and truth was advocated by the exponents of so-called academic philosophy, that is philosophy which was developed within the Theological Aca- 9 С. Франк, Онтологическое доказательство бытия Бога, http://lib.ru/HRIS- TIAN/FRANK_S_L/bytie.txt_with-big-pictures.html. 10 Gregory Palamas, The Triads for the Defense of Those Who Practice Sacred Qui- etude, I, 2, 3, trans. N. Gendle, Paulist Press, New Jersey 1983, p. 37. 11 See T. Obolevitch, Problematyczny konkordyzm. Wiara i wiedza w myśli Włodzimierza S. Sołowjowa i Siemiona L. Franka, Biblos, Tarnów 2006, pp. 25–28. Faith as the Locus Philosophicus of Russian Thought 11 demies .12 For instance, a professor of the Academy in Kiev, Pamfil Yurkevich (1827–1874) proposed the concept of “heart metaphys- ics” in his work The Heart and Its Significance in the Spiritual Life of Man. Yurkevich treated heart as the fundamental ontologico-an- thropological category which determines spiritual life and decides about the cognition of God and moral values . First and foremost, heart is a source of faith . Such a form of “the metaphysics of the heart” can be found in the works of many others Russian thinkers: Semyon Frank, Boris Vysheslavtsev, Ivan Ilyin, Pavel Florensky, Vasily Ro- zanov. The maxim of Pascal (related to the teaching of the Fathers of the Eastern Church) “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing” should be acknowledged as the seminal statement of Rus- sian religious thought . According to Greek and Russian “metaphysicians of the heart”, cognition through faith supposes an integration of the whole person . This position of faith towards reason was shared by the Slavophiles Ivan Kireevsky (1806–1856) and Aleksey Khomyakov (1804–1860). In Kireevsky’s opinion, one should strive for the unity of all of the powers of cognition. It can be achieved due to the elevation of mind to the higher, spiritual level, so that a process of thinking could run in accordance with the principle of faith . As a result of this, a “faith- ful reason” would be impervious to the radical rationalism which We- stern philosophy was subordinated to . Thinking cannot be carried out without the faith which integrates other factors: will, reason, intui- tion, feelings and aesthetic sense. Only under this condition could the New Testament postulate “the renewal of mind” (Rom 12:2) be ful- filled. Kireevsky claimed: The development of natural reason serves faith only as a series of steps, and, by transcending the usual state of the mind, faith informs 12 See T. Obolevitch, The Issue of Knowledge and Faith in the Russian Academic Milieu from the 19th to the 21st Century, [in:] Between Philosophy and Science, eds .
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