Beyond Modernity Ex Oriente Lux New Perspectives on Russian Religious Philosophers
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Beyond Modernity Ex Oriente Lux New Perspectives on Russian Religious Philosophers series vol. 1 Edited by Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, and Paweł Rojek This book is the first in the series Ex Oriente Lux, and provides an introduction to the context of the subsequent volumes. We believe that the Russian religious philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies has great importance for Christian theology and philosophy. Russian thinkers, rooted in the tradition of the Church Fathers, avoided the theological dualism that so deeply penetrates Western thought. Such philosophers and theologians as Peter Chaa- daev, Alexei Khomiakov, Vladimir Soloviev, Evgeni Trubetskoy, Pavel Florensky, Sergey Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Georges Florovsky, and Aleksei Losev developed unique views on the relationships between religion and culture, science, philosophy, and social life, which, unfortunately, are missing from contemporary Western debate. The press- ing task is to include their legacy in the context of contemporary philosophical and theological dialogue. The series Ex Oriente Lux aims to meet this need. It serves as a way to bring Eastern Christian intuitions into the contemporary post-secular philosophical and theologi- cal context. Each subsequent volume will focus on one Russian thinker and include a selection of essays on his main ideas in historical and contemporary perspectives. The books in the series are prepared by both Western and Russian scholars, creating a space for discussion. The books in the Ex Oriente Lux series come out of research connected with the annual conferences on Russian religious philosophy held in Krakow, Poland. The “Krakow Meetings” are organized jointly by the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland, the Institute of Philosophy Edith Stein in Granada, Spain, and the International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient in Granada, Spain. The Next Volumes in the Series Peter Chaadaev: Between the Love of Fatherland and the Love of Truth Alexei Khomiakov: We Are Sobornost’ Evgeni Trubetskoy: Icon and Philosophy Beyond Modernity Russian Religious Philosophy and Post-Secularism edited by Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, and Paweł Rojek BEYonD MODERNITY Russian Religious Philosophy and Post-Secularism Ex Oriente Lux 1 Copyright © 2016 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401. Pickwick Publications An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3 Eugene, OR 97401 www.wipfandstock.com paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-3977-6 hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-3979-0 ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-3978-3 Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Names: Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Artur, 1968–, editor. | Obolevitch, Teresa, 1974–, editor. | Rojek, Paweł, 1981–, editor. Title: Beyond modernity : Russian religious philosophy and post-secularism / edited by Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, and Paweł Rojek. Description: Eugene, OR : Pickwick Publications, 2016 | Ex Oriente Lux 1 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-3977-6 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-3979-0 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-3978-3 (ebook) Subjects: LSCH: Russians—Intellectual life—20th century. | Russians—Intel- lectual life—19th century. | Postmodernism—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Christianity and culture—Russia. | Religion and culture—Russia. | Christian philosophy—Russia. | Religious thought—Russia. Classification: BR932 .B43 2016 (print) | BR932 .B43 (ebook) Manufactured in the U.S.A. 10/10/16 Contents Contributors | ix Introduction: “Abel, where is your Brother Cain?” The Russian Way of Overcoming Modernity—Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, Paweł Rojek | 1 Part I: General Overview 1 Aspects of the Russian Tradition of Philosophical-Theological Synthesis in the Post-Secular Context: Georges Florovsky, Sergey Bulgakov, Alain Badiou, and the “Theology Dwarf”—Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Sebastián Montiel Gómez | 13 2 “Secularisation” and “Post-Secular” in Russian Religious Thought: Main Features—Konstantin Antonov | 25 3 Post-Secularity vs. All-Unity—Grigory Gutner | 39 4 Post-Secularism: A Preliminary Outline of the Issue with a Certain Ancient Russian Context—Janusz Dobieszewski | 49 v vi Contents Part II: Systematic Studies 5 Eleusa: Secularism, Post-Secularism, and Russian Sophiology —Aaron Riches | 59 6 Russian Sophiology and the Problem of the Subject in Modern Philosophy—Natalia Vaganova | 86 7 Post-Secular Metaphysics: Georges Florovsky’s Project of Theological Philosophy —Paweł Rojek | 97 8 Sergey Bulgakov’s Trinitarian Anthropology: Meaning, Hope, and Evan- gelizing in a Post-Secular Society—Walter Sisto | 136 Part III: Historical Focuses 9 Friedrich Nietzsche as a Christian Thinker: The Philosophy of Nietzsche in the Context of the Russian Religious Philosophy of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries—Igor Evlampiev | 147 10 Eschatology or Progress? Vladimir Soloviev and his Criticism of St. Phil- aret of Moscow’s Ecclesiology—Fr. Pavel Khondzinskiy | 160 11 Christianity in the Times of Postmodernism? A Reconstruction of Answers by Sergey Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdyaev —Katharina Anna Breckner | 168 12 Towards a New Understanding of Immanence and Transcendence: The Concept of Kairos in the Writings of Nikolai Berdyaev and Paul Tillich—Monika Woźniak | 175 13 Religion in Public Life according to Nikolai Berdyaev —Halina Rarot | 186 14 Religious Revival and Post-Secular Society according to Pavel Floren- sky—Nikolai Pavliuchenkov | 199 15 The Philosophy of Culture of Semen Frank and its Significance for the Post-Secular World—Teresa Obolevitch | 210 Contents vii 16 The Way Journal (1925–1941) and the Question of Freedom in the Context of European Post-Secular Culture—Olga Tabatadze | 225 17 Overcoming the Secular: Viktor Nesmelov’s Teaching on Personhood as the Justification of the Radical Theological Commitment in the Dialogue between Faith and Reason—Alexei Nesteruk | 238 18 The Crisis of the Classical Anthropological Model: The Anthropologi- cal Mission of Post-Secularism according to Sergey Horujy—Roman Turowski | 253 19 Christian Philosophical Mysticism in the Poetry of “Leningrad’s Under- ground” as a Challenge to Soviet Secularism—Zhanna Sizova | 264 Contributors Konstantin Antonov, Professor at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia. Katharina Anna Breckner (1962–2015), Independent scholar, Hamburg, Germany. Janusz Dobieszewski, Professor at University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. Igor Evlampiev, Professor at Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Grigory Gutner, Professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia. Fr. Pavel Khondzinskiy, Professor at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia. Sebastián Montiel Gómez, Professor at the University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Artur Mrówczyński-Van Allen, Professor at the International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient and Institut of Philosophy “Edith Stein,” Granada, Spain. Alexei Nesteruk, Professor at the University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, The United Kingdom. ix x Contributors Teresa Obolevitch, Professor at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland. Nikolai Pavliuchenkov, Assistant Professor at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Univer- sity, Moscow, Russia. Halina Rarot, Professor at the Lublin University of Technology, Lublin, Poland. Aaron Riches, Assistant Professor at the Institut of Philosophy “Edith Stein,” Granada, Spain. Paweł Rojek, Assistant Professor at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland. Walter Sisto, Assistant Professor at D’Youville College, Buffalo, NY, United States. Zhanna Sizova, Editor of the Voda Zhivaya Journal, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Olga Tabatadze, Assistant Lecturer at the International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient, Granada, Spain. Roman Turowski, Doctoral Student at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland. Natalia Vaganova, Professor at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia. Monika Woźniak, Doctoral Student at the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. introduction “Abel, where is your Brother Cain?” The Russian Way of Overcoming Modernity1 Artur Mrówczynski-Van Allen Teresa Obolevitch Paweł Rojek ost-secularism is the fundamental element for the end of modernity. PIt is its final stage, in which modernity is waking up from Francisco Goya’s dream and realizing that, although it thought that it was awake, it was producing monsters. Modernity becomes aware that the enlightened “awakening of reason” was nothing but an illusion, a nightmare that it tries to exorcise with a new magic formula: “post-secularism.” How have the re- lationships between the post-secular consciousness that tries to defend its alleged position of neutrality towards religion and its ever more obvious dependence on the religious nature of mankind—or even its own religious, or better said, mythical, character—been articulated? How were the Russian thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth century able to identify this aspect of modernity? We hope the reader will be able to find answers to these ques- tions in the works gathered here. The innermost characteristic of the secular is the alienation that de- vours time and space, the time and space of the most