Russian Sociopolitical Thought of the Beginning of the XX Century and the Letter of the Testament: Revolutionary Messianism of God-Builders and Conservatism of V. V. Rozanov (original) (raw)

Religion in Russian Marxism

Rethinking Marxism, 2020

Of all the past efforts to reconcile Marxism and religiosity, the "god-building" episode within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) is especially fascinating. Situating god building in its historical context, amidst the reaction that followed the revolutionary defeat of 1905, this essay reconstructs the intellectual drama which subsequently ensued. Maksim Gorkii and Anatolii Lunacharskii emerge as the progenitors and main protagonists of the god-building current, in debate with more orthodox Marxists like Plekhanov and Lenin. God building was articulated in a number of different literary forms, from poems and letters to novels, articles, and even philosophical treatises. Ultimately, the objections raised by Lenin and others are found to be more in line with the views of Marx and Engels, though god building does pose important questions about the redeemable content of religious belief.

The Russian religious philosopheres and theme of Trinity

Slavica Lundensia, 2001

Having it both ways Rozanov, modernity and the Skopcy LAURA ENGELSTEIN VASILIJ ROZANOV liked to have it both ways. On the one hand, he bemoaned the age of mass culture, cursing 'that damned Gutenberg', for 'lick[ing] writers with his bronze tongue, so they all hardened "in print", effaced and subdued. My "self" exists only in manuscript,' he insisted, 'like every writer s "self".' (Rozanov 1911, 5.) On the other hand, he wrote for the commercial press and boasted of reading Nat Pinkerton to put himself to sleep. Working with and against the modern medium, he tried to make the published text an artifact. Cultivating the illusion of idiosyncrasy, he inserted family photographs (another technological innovation-but one that fixed an unrepeatable moment in time) into his prose, played with italics, uneven paragraphs, incomplete sentences, collages of quotations, juxtapositions, the clash of styles, the intrusion of profanity, the exposure of intimacy (what Viktor Sklovskij calls 'domesticity as literary technique' (1921, 21)). He thus offended the hierarchy of taste, while preserving the conceptual coordinates that structured the thinking of his age. This series included a linked chain of contrasting pairs: old and new, native and foreign (East and West), spiritual and rational, folk and elite. Following this logic, Rozanov added categories of his own: sensual and self-denying, manuscript and print, personal and impersonal. In this grand scheme, derived from Slavophile thinking, Russia appeared as the antithesis of the modernizing, increasingly rationalist (Protestant or secular) West. Latin Christianity had produced the authoritarian structures of the Catholic Church and the puritanical intellectualism of the Reformation. Russia, too, had its clerical regime and established dogmas, but in seeking to trace Russia's

Social and Political Thought in the Russian Religious Renaissance

Before the Russian revolution of 1917 and subsequently in exile, the leading figures of the Russian religious renaissance were deeply engaged in social and political questions. Vladimir Soloviev, Sergius Bulgakov and Nicolas Berdyaev in particular presented Christian philosophies and theologies as alternatives to secular philosophies which captivated the Russian intelligentsia in late imperial Russia. Their thinking was consistent with evangelical precepts and the social thinking and actions of the early Fathers of the Church, even if not always couched in explicitly Christian terms. Major Christian theological and spiritual principles inspiring their theologies include the equality of all human beings, the evangelical imperative of love of neighbour as a reflection of love of God, the uniqueness of the human person, and freedom. Social and political thinking during the Russian religious renaissance provided a solid, if inadequately recognized, basis for the development of later Orthodox social and political theology.

From Ecclesiology to Christian Populism: The Religious and Political Thought of the Russian Slavophiles

This article represents an analysis of the religious and political thought of Slavophiles and concentrates on the way in which Slavophile ecclesiology and epistemology lead to a form of Christian populism and to a messianic vision of history in which the key role is played by the Russian people. The article emphasises the paradoxes of the Slavophile theological and political thought, as well as its political implications at the level of the 19 th century Russian society.

"Slavophile Religious Thought and the Dilemma of Russian Modernity" (2010)

Modern Intellectual History, 2010

Russian public opinion in the first half of the nineteenth century was buffeted by a complex of cultural, psychological, and historiosophical dilemmas that destabilized many conventions about Russia's place in universal history. This article examines one response to these dilemmas: the Slavophile reconfiguration of Eastern Christianity as a modern religion of theocentric freedom and moral progress. Drawing upon methods of contextual analysis, the article challenges the usual scholarly treatment of Slavophile religious thought as a vehicle to address extrahistorical concerns by placing the writings of A. S. Khomiakov and I. V. Kireevskii in the discursive and ideological framework in which they originated and operated. As such, the article considers the atheistic revolution in consciousness advocated by Russian Hegelians, the Schellingian proposition that human freedom and moral advancement were dependent upon the living God, P. Ia. Chaadaev's contention that a people's religious orientation determined its historical potential, and the Slavophile appropriation of Russia's dominant confession to resolve the problem of having attained historical consciousness in an age of historical stasis. *

The Psychology of Religion in Russian Religious Thought: On the Problem Statement

Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences, 2018

The paper analyzes milestones in the development of psychological reflexion of religion, that took place in Russian religious thought. The author means that psychological approach to analysis of religion appeared in Russian thought under the influence of German idealism with its attention to the problem of consciousness as well as Romanticism, which implemented a rehabilitation of religion and at the same moment put it to the sphere of emotions. The author analyzes three steps in this process. First, the prehistory as represented by Chaadayev and Slavophiles. Such concepts as “work of consciousness,” “faith,” “personal revelation” are introduced here. Second, Solovyov, his disciples and other thinkers from various philosophical movements, who worked mainly in the last quarter of the 19th century. One can see here detailed descriptions of historical religious process, made in psychological terms. Third period encompasses early 20th century, with widening influence of such schools in foreign thought as neo-Kantianism, Lebensphilosophie, phenomenology etc., as well as “psychological prose” in Russian literature. The psychological interpretation of religious life of individual in the form of literary or art criticism grows up here. The paper describes methodological innovation and major results in psychological understanding of religious questions. The author views the following as the crucial trends: growing empiricity and historicism, moving from abstract philosophical schemes to more complicated interpretation techniques while researching concise historical matter.