Life in the Spirit

‘Life in the Spirit’, an ancient conviction of the Church, finds diverse new meanings among the thinkers of the nineteenth century. The chapter starts with a distinguished line of Protestants from Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard to Bushnell, Royce, and Troeltsch. Then it turns to three Anglicans (Coleridge, Maurice, Gore); to Möhler and the Catholic Tübingen School; and to Soloviev and Russian religious thought. It ends with ‘marginalized voices’ of the century, voices that spoke of the Spirit in the genre not of theology but of sermon, song, and story. The purpose is to display as much variety in viewpoint as possible and not to resolve contradictions. Tensions are inherent to the topic itself. It is clear that, despite the centrality of Christological issues in this century, the Spirit too comes into its own, blowing in every direction.

Deification in the Long Nineteenth Century

Deification in Russian Religious Thought ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198836230.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 55-81

Author(s):

Ruth Coates

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Nineteenth Century ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Culture ◽

Institutions Of Higher Education ◽

Religious Thought ◽

History Of ◽

Cultural Expressions ◽

Chapter 2 sets out the history of the reception of deification in Russia in the long nineteenth century, drawing attention to the breadth and diversity of the theme’s manifestation, and pointing to the connections with inter-revolutionary religious thought. It examines how deification is understood variously in the spheres of monasticism, Orthodox institutions of higher education, and political culture. It identifies the novelist Fedor Dostoevsky and the philosopher Vladimir Soloviev as the most influential elite cultural expressions of the idea of deification, and the primary conduits through which Western European philosophical expressions of deification reach early twentieth-century Russian religious thought. Inspired by the anthropotheism of Feuerbach, and Stirner’s response to this, Dostoevsky brings to the fore the problem of illegitimate self-apotheosis, whilst Soloviev, in his philosophy of divine humanity, bequeaths deification to his successors both as this is understood by the church and in its iteration in German metaphysical idealism.

Deification in Russian Religious Thought

10.1093/oso/9780198836230.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ruth Coates

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Religious Culture ◽

Human Beings ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Religious Order ◽

Central Thesis ◽

Divine Attribute ◽

The Social ◽

Revolutionary Period

Deification in Russian Religious Thought is a study of the reception of the Eastern Christian (Orthodox) doctrine of deification by Russian religious thinkers of the immediate pre-revolutionary period. Deification is the metaphor that the Greek patristic tradition came to privilege in its articulation of the Christian concept of salvation: to be saved is to be deified, that is, to share in the divine attribute of immortality. The central thesis of this book is that between the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 Russian religious thinkers turned to deification in their search for a response to the imminent destruction of the Russian autocracy (and the social and religious order that supported it), that was commensurate with its perceived apocalyptic significance. Contextual chapters set out the parameters of the Greek patristic understanding of deification and the reception of the idea in nineteenth-century Russian religious culture, literature, and thought. Then, four major works by prominent thinkers of the Russian Religious Renaissance are analysed, demonstrating the salience of the deification theme and exploring the variety of forms of its expression. In these works by Merezhkovsky, Berdiaev, Bulgakov, and Florensky, deification is taken out of its original theological context and applied respectively to politics, creativity, economics, and asceticism: this is presented as a modernist endeavour. Nevertheless their common emphasis on deification as a project, a practice that should deliver the ontological transformation and immortalization of human beings, society, culture, and the material universe, whilst likewise modernist, is also what connects them to deification’s theological source.

Religious Thought and Experience in the Prison Camps

The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198796442.013.35 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 579-591

Author(s):

Andrea Gullotta

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Direct Effect ◽

The State ◽

Soviet Regime ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Secondary Sources ◽

Or Groups ◽

The Social ◽

Prison Camp ◽

Russian Religious Thought

The development of religious thought has often been marked by discord and conflicts between religions (and/or individual religious thinkers) and the State, which at times led to the repression of individuals and or groups of people united by the same confession. The Russian case is fully in line with this unfortunate tradition: from Nikon’s schism to the repression against all religions under the Soviet regime, Russian religious thought has often developed in repressive conditions. However, the Russian case has one distinguishing feature, that is, the extensive use of prison camps by Russian and Soviet authorities from the nineteenth century onwards, which has had a direct effect on some religious thinkers. The social and historical-cultural peculiarities of both Tsarist camps and the Gulag have shaped some of those thinkers’ views (for instance, Dostoevsky’s intellectual path was deeply influenced by his experience in the camp). Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources, this chapter aims at showing how the experience of detention in a Russian/Soviet prison camp has influenced some Russian religious thinkers such as Dostoevsky, Florensky, and Karsavin. It will also point readers’ attention to some lesser-known contributions to religious thought by philosophers, poets, and writers.

Archbishop Whately: Human Nature and Christian Assistance

Church History ◽

10.2307/3166881 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 166-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ray E. McKerrow

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

American Academy ◽

Human Nature ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Arts And Sciences ◽

Richard Whately ◽

The Times ◽

Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin (1831–1863), has been characterized as a representative of the Broad Church movement of the early to mid-nineteenth century. Convinced that the Church of England's sacraments and liturgies, indeed its very structure, should correspond to the times and not to some ancient formulary, Whately argued continuously for a general reformation of its rules and regulations and for a separate church body to arbitrate disputes over spiritual matters. Recognizing the force of his arguments on these and myriad other subjects, a reviewer for the Christian Observer commented that “the Archbishop is a great intellectual gladiator, and all parties will confess that it is far pleasanter to have him with them than against them.” The nature of his role as a Christian advocate also was noted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “He showed a rare union of literary talent, knowledge of human nature, and administrative ability, and the work that he accomplished places him in the highest rank of Christian statesmen. … [His essays] have had a wide influence upon the course of religious thought in England for more than a quarter of a century.”

Catholic Theology in the United States, 1840-1907: Recovering a Forgotten Tradition

Horizons ◽

10.1017/s0360966900024051 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 317-333

Author(s):

William L. Portier

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Nineteenth Century ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Catholic Theology ◽

American Catholic ◽

AbstractContrary to widely held assumptions, American Catholics in the nineteenth century made some interesting and even original contributions to religious thought. This essay serves as an introductory resource for this significant body of writing. Surveying the period between 1840 and 1907, it identifies distinctive and self-aware American Catholic contributions to theology in three areas, the church question, Catholic Americanism, and modernism. Finally it draws attention to some of the unfinished agenda left to us by this largely forgotten tradition.

The Anglican Imagination of Matthew Arnold

Journal of Anglican Studies ◽

10.1017/s1740355309990040 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 200-218

Author(s):

Matthew LaGrone

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Church Of England ◽

Matthew Arnold ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Anglican Church ◽

Christian Doctrine ◽

Victorian Era ◽

AbstractThis essay is an attempt to write Matthew Arnold into the narrative of Anglican thought in the nineteenth century. Overviews of general religious thought in the Victorian era give an appropriate nod to Arnold, but the institutional histories of the Anglican Church have not acknowledged his contributions to defining Anglican identity. In many ways, this is quite understandable: Arnold broke with much of traditional Christian doctrine. But, and just as significant, he never left the Church of England, and in fact he was an apologist for the Church at a time when even part of the clergy seemed alienated. He sought to expand the parameters of permitted religious opinion to include the largest number of English Christians in the warm embrace of the national Church. The essay concludes that the religious reflections of Arnold must be anchored in an Anglican context.

Theosis in Early Twentieth-Century Russian Religious Thought

The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198796442.013.20 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 239-254

Author(s):

Ruth Coates

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Social Order ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Late Imperial ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The One ◽

Vladimir Solov'ev ◽

Entire Economy

The chapter argues that the Greek patristic doctrine of theosis (‘becoming god’ or ‘making god’) was a dominant theme of late imperial Russian religious thought, in which it served as a response to the acutely felt anticipation of the imminent collapse of the Russian political and social order. Theosis is defined as a metaphor for salvation that emphasizes the process, as much as the goal, of assimilation to God, and which can be viewed as a narrative encompassing the entire economy of salvation as well as a doctrine narrowly conceived. It is argued that lay Russian religious thinkers accessed the concept of theosis through diverse channels that included the patristic translation project and related scholarship of Russia’s Theological Academies, the still vital tradition of spiritual eldership and the pathway to personal transfiguration by the divine energies set out in the Dobrotoliubie, and the philosophy of divine humanity of the nineteenth-century religious philosopher Vladimir Solov’ev. Three seminal early twentieth-century treatments of theosis are analysed: Sergei Bulgakov’s Philosophy of Economy (1912), Nikolai Berdyaev’s Meaning of Creativity (1916), and Pavel Florensky’s The Pillar and Ground of the Truth (1914). These reveal the ‘modernist’ approach typical of the period, that is, engagement of theosis in dialogue with diverse intellectual contexts including German metaphysical idealism (Bulgakov), Symbolism and the theosophy of Jakob Böhme (Berdyaev), on the one hand, and, in the case of Florensky, engagement of the formal experimentalism of modernism in the service of a defence of Orthodox mystical asceticism.

Sobornost as a Means of Anthropoidea in Russian Philosophical Thought

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology - Regular Issue ◽

10.35940/ijeat.a3113.109119 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 7448-7451

Keyword(s):

Present Article ◽

Social Order ◽

Meaning Of Life ◽

The State ◽

Russian Orthodox ◽

Religious Thought ◽

Russian Culture ◽

The Church ◽

The Ideal

In the present article the problem of seeking the purpose of life in the Russian religious thought is analyzed in the context of closely intertwined concepts, those of theodicy and sobornost. It is demonstrated that the meaning of life in Russian culture is interpreted as the spiritual salvation not only individual, but collective, which can be attained on the way of cooperation between Man and God. Hence, the key concept of Russian thought, sobornost, is originated. The article formulates two ways of interpretation of sobornost. The first one understands it as the means of overcoming the human incompleteness and isolation by unifying individuals with others and with God in the Church. It tends to counterpose the positive social order, the State, non-human in its essence, and the God-like church community of self-realized individuals. The second one, on the contrary, sees the ideal of sobornost realized in the Russian Orthodox Empire.

The Township, the Pregnant Girl and the Church: Community Dynamics, Gender and Social Control in Early Nineteenth-century Scotland

Northern Scotland ◽

10.3366/nor.2019.0168 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 41-67

Author(s):

Elizabeth Ritchie

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Social Control ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Church Discipline ◽

Sexual Offences ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

Female Community ◽

The Church ◽

Unmarried Girl

In 1814 in a small Highland township an unmarried girl, ostracised by her neighbours, gave birth. The baby died. The legal precognition permits a forensic, gendered examination of the internal dynamics of rural communities and how they responded to threats to social cohesion. In the Scottish ‘parish state’ disciplining sexual offences was a matter for church discipline. This case is situated in the early nineteenth-century Gàidhealtachd where and when church institutions were less powerful than in the post-Reformation Lowlands, the focus of most previous research. The article shows that the formal social control of kirk discipline was only part of a complex of behavioural controls, most of which were deployed within and by communities. Indeed, Scottish communities and churches were deeply entwined in terms of personnel; shared sexual prohibitions; and in the use of shaming as a primary method of social control. While there was something of a ‘female community’, this was not unconditionally supportive of all women nor was it ranged against men or patriarchal structures.

Scottish Missionaries, ‘Protestant Hinduism’ and the Scottish Sense of Empire in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century India

The Scottish Historical Review ◽

10.3366/shr.2007.86.2.278 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 86 (2) ◽

pp. 278-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Philip Constable

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Western India ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

Church Of Scotland ◽

Free Church ◽

Intellectual Engagement ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.