THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Sexual-Spousal Love in the Theological Anthropology of V. S. Soloviev: Systematic Analysis and Recent Roman Catholic Interpretation A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By John Romanowsky Washington, D.C. 2011 Sexual-Spousal Love in the Theological Anthropology of V. S. Soloviev: Systematic Analysis and Recent Roman Catholic Interpretation John Romanowsky, Ph.D. Director: Peter Casarella, Ph.D. This dissertation analyzes V. S. Soloviev’s theological anthropology of sexual- spousal love and assesses its value as a resource for Roman Catholic theology as illustrated in the work of Angelo Cardinal Scola and Hans Urs von Balthasar. It includes the following elements. First, it presents a biography of Soloviev and an overview of the development of his theory of sexual-spousal love in all relevant texts. Second, it analyzes his methodology of “free theosophy.” Third, it examines the theoretical foundations of his theory, including his Trinitarian metaphysics of “all-unity,” his theology of Christ’s divine-humanity, and his aesthetics of “free theurgy.” Fourth, it provides an analysis of his theory of human love in general and sexual-spousal love in particular. Fifth, it assesses how Soloviev is used as a resource for contemporary Roman Catholic theological anthropology in Scola’s work, The Nuptial Mystery, and von Balthasar’s essay, “Soloviev” in The Glory of the Lord, identifying key positive and negative elements. Soloviev argues that the meaning of sexual-spousal love is the realization of the imago Dei or authentic personhood as revealed in “true marriage” and participates in the “great mystery” of Christ’s union with the Church (Ephesians 5:32). This love is unique in its power to overcome egoism and is fulfilled in spousal union. It is the “type and ideal” of all human love. The gradual historical realization of this union in “true marriage” is a free, creative, divine-human process dependent on grace, faith, ecclesial communion, and the spiritual and moral “feat” (podvig) of the Christian life. This union will only be perfected in the fullness of the kingdom of God, the wedding of the Bride and the Lamb. Soloviev’s ideas anticipate recent dogmatic and theological developments concerning spousal love and union with their emphasis on personhood, love, freedom, and communion, as well as a new focus on theological aesthetics, the former exemplified in Scola’s work and the latter in von Balthasar’s. Engaging Soloviev could promote progress in a Catholic understanding of sexual-spousal love and union that could help overcome tendencies to moralism, dogmatism, and the abandonment of eros to the secular culture. This dissertation by John Romanowsky fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Historical Theology approved by Peter Casarella, Ph.D., as Director, and by Rev. Brian V. Johnstone, C.SS.R., S.T.D. and Msgr. Paul McPartlan, S.T.L., D.Phil. as Readers. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Peter Casarella, Ph.D., Director –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Rev. Brian V. Johnstone, C.SS.R., S.T.D., Reader –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Msgr. Paul McPartlan, S.T.L., D.Phil., Reader ii Table of Contents PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Chapter I. On Overview of Soloviev’s Life, Work, and Theory of Sexual-Spousal Love .................................................................................... 1 1. An Introduction to the Subject ............................................................................. 1 2. The Formation of a Christian Philosopher ............................................................ 5 2.1 Laying the Foundations .............................................................................. 5 2.2 Intellectual Formation .............................................................................. 11 2.3 Three Encounters with “Divine Sophia” ................................................. 16 2.4 Soloviev’s Three Creative Phases ............................................................ 20 2.4.1 “Free Theosophy” (1873-1883) ...................................................... 22 2.4.2 “Free Theocracy” (1883-1890) ...................................................... 26 2.4.3 “Free Theurgy” (1890-1898) .......................................................... 30 2.5 Apocalypse (1898-1900) ........................................................................... 34 3. A Chronological Synopsis of Soloviev’s Writings on Sexual-Spousal Love ...... 35 3.1 “Primordial Chaos”: La Sophie (1876) and The White Lily (1880) ......... 36 3.2 1880s: Sexual-Spousal Love and le Vrai Mariage (1883-89) .................... 38 3.3 1890s: Sexual-Spousal Love, Divine-Humanity, and Free Theurgy .......... 41 3.3.1 The Meaning of Love (1892-94) ....................................................... 42 3.3.2 The Justification of the Good (1894-97) .......................................... 59 3.3.3 The Life Drama of Plato (1898) ....................................................... 62 3.3.4 Brockhaus Encyclopedia article on “Love” ..................................... 67 4. An Overview of the Dissertation .......................................................................... 69 4.1 Soloviev’s Methodological Application of “Free Theosophy” .................. 70 4.2 Soloviev’s Trinitarian Metaphysics of Love ............................................... 71 4.3 Divine-Humanity and the Sacramentum Magnum .................................... 72 4.4 Soloviev’s Theological Aesthetics of Free Theurgy ................................... 73 4.5 The General Meaning of Human Love ...................................................... 74 4.6 The Meaning of Sexual-Spousal Love ....................................................... 74 4.7 Soloviev as a Resource for Catholic Theology: An Analysis of the Treatment of Soloviev in Scola’s The Nuptial Mystery and von Balthasar’s The Glory of the Lord ......................................................................................... 76 Chapter II. Soloviev’s Methodological Application of “Free Theosophy” .................... 79 1. Free Theosophy as Christian Mission .................................................................... 82 2. Slavophilism and Integral Knowledge ................................................................... 85 iii 3. Free Theosophy ..................................................................................................... 88 3.1 Confronting the Crisis of Western Philosophy .............................................. 89 3.2 Mysticism and the Possibility of Knowledge ................................................. 91 3.3 The Critique of Abstract Principles ............................................................... 94 4. Methodological Application .................................................................................. 98 PART TWO: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS Chapter III. Soloviev’s Trinitarian Metaphysics of Love .............................................. 103 Trinitarian Metaphysics of All-Unity ........................................................................ 105 1 The Absolute as Hen kai Pan ........................................................................... 106 2 Concrete Idealism and Love ............................................................................ 108 3 The Formal Truth of the Trinity ...................................................................... 110 4 The Divine Monarchia and the Personalist Metaphysics of Ecclesial Being 113 5 The Divine Essence as Absolute Love .............................................................. 117 Chapter IV. Divine-Humanity and the Sacramentum Magnum ..................................... 121 1. The Principles of Divine-Humanity ....................................................................... 123 1.1 The Chalcedonian Foundation of Divine-Humanity ..................................... 127 1.2 Christ as Incarnate Logos and Second Adam ............................................... 128 1.3 The Drama of Divine-Humanity and the Kenotic Podvig of Christ .............. 129 1.3.1 The “Podvig of the Spirit” and the Three Temptations of Christ ........ 131 1.3.2 The “Podvig of the Flesh” and the Paschal Mystery ........................... 133 2. The Realization of Divine-Humanity ..................................................................... 135 2.1 Divine-Humanity as Divine Sophia Incarnate ............................................... 137 2.1.1 Imago Trinitatis ..................................................................................... 142 2.1.2 Man-Woman-Society and the Marriage of Heaven and Earth ............. 145 2.2 The Incarnate Sophia as the Universal Church ............................................. 148 Chapter V. Soloviev’s Theological Aesthetics of Free Theurgy .................................... 156 1. The Place of Aesthetics in Soloviev’s Synthesis ..................................................... 158 2. Beauty in Nature ..................................................................................................... 163 3. The Meaning of Art ................................................................................................ 170 3.1 The Subjective Principle of Art ...................................................................... 173 3.2 Art as