Religious Thought and Experience in the Prison Camps

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.

Deification in Russian Religious Thought

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Coates
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Religious Order ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Divine Attribute ◽  
The Social ◽  
Russian Religious Thought ◽  
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.

Re-imagining the Social Order

2018 ◽  
pp. 155-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Innes
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
The State ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Old Order ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Late Eighteenth

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw attempts around the Mediterranean world to replace an old order of privilege and delegated power with one in which all subjects were equal before the state. Across southern Europe, revolutionary France provided the model: under French and subsequently liberal regimes, privilege in state, church, and economy was cut back; there were analogous changes in the Ottoman world. Legal change did not always translate into substantive social change. Nonetheless, new conceptions of a largely autonomous ‘society’ developed, and new protocols were invented to relate state to ‘society’, often entailing use of tax status as a reference point for the allocation of rights and duties. The French Doctrinaires argued that the abolition of privilege made society ‘democratic’, posing the question, how was such a society best governed? By the middle of the nineteenth century, this conception was widely endorsed across southern Europe.

Deification in the Long Nineteenth Century

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 ◽  
Russian Religious Thought ◽  
The Church

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.

Myth, metaphor and hypothesis: how anthropomorphism defeats science

1995 ◽  
Vol 349 (1328) ◽  
pp. 215-218 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The State ◽  
Selfish Gene ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Rationalism

Dawkin’s theory of the selfish gene has achieved an hegemony quite out of proportion to its intellectual finesse. Its popularity among not just sociobiologists, but biologists proper, provides yet another illustration of the susceptibility of scientific rationalism to the social and political ideologies of the day, to which scientists, being only too human, are heir. A singular achievement of nineteenth century biology, through such writers as Darwin and Huxley, was the construction of an objectifying language for the description of biological phenomena. Transposed into evolutionary theory, this language carefully deanthropomorphizes the processes of mutation, competition and survival, which were defined as central to the state of being of the natural world. Implications of motivation and intention were excluded from the meaning of these terms, as improper for the species and operations involved.

The Social Outlook of Prussian Conservatism

1953 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O. Shanahan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fourth Decade ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
Coherent Body ◽  
Practical Conduct

Prussian Conservatism was not an ideology comparable to those which have breathed into every crevice of twentieth century totalitarian states. It was not really an ideology at all, if that term is understood to mean a system of thought enforced by the state so as to give every human act a political meaning. The Prussian conservatives, conditioned by an aristocratic disdain for a political rationale, were unable to agree on a uniform principle of political conduct. Shades of meaning, based largely on the balance struck between religion and political realism, persisted in coloring the conservative temperament. Yet by the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, Prussian conservatism had become a coherent body of thought distinct from liberalism, democracy, or socialism. Its historical importance became assured, when, at Bismarck's hands, Prussian conservatism entered wholeheartedly into the making of what the liberal historian, Erich Eyck, has called “German constitutionalism,” that is a system of politics respectful of authority, but equally disdainful of democracy and absolutism, in which the practical conduct of government may be guided by moral principles in an irrational world.

Blood Partnership in Theory and Practice: the Expansion of Muslim Power in Dar Al-Kuti

1979 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis D. Cordell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Chad Basin ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Muslim People ◽  
Oral Testimony ◽  
Local Leaders

This article examines the institution of blood partnership, first theoretically, and then with reference to northern Equatorial Africa and Dar al-Kuti, a Muslim slave-raiding and slave-trading state. Contemporary anthropologists described blood partnership schematically as the exchange of blood and of conditional curses between two individuals or groups for the purpose of guaranteeing co-operation. They also suggested that blood partnership created bonds analogous to kinship. Blood alliances were concluded almost exclusively between parties who were not related genealogically, and promoted security, co-operation and long-distance trade. They were particularly important among societies outside highly centralized states, where they provided the ideology and mechanism for wider action embracing unrelated groups. Northern Equatorial Africa was just such an area, and, in the nineteenth century at least, blood pacts were very common. The article looks at blood partnership in the region generally, pointing out how foreigners, Muslims as well as Europeans, adopted the institution as a means of allying themselves with local leaders. Muslim penetration of the region is examined, and the infiltration of thezaribasystem of the southwestern Sudan into Ubangi-Shari (in what is now the Central African Empire) is outlined. The second half of the article deals specifically with Dar al-Kuti. Oral testimony and written evidence are combined to present a picture of blood partnership among the Banda, the most important non-Muslim people included in the state. The analysis is then extended to show how Muslims in the region, mainly the Runga from the Chad basin, led by Kobur and then by al-Sanusi, used blood pacts to foster their political and economic ambitions among non-Muslim peoples south of the Islamic frontier.

Life in the Spirit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Russian Religious Thought ◽  
The Church

‘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.

scholarly journals The Irish Railway Commission (1836–39) aiming to reform railways in the United Kingdom and to improve the governance of Ireland

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Philip Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The State ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
History Of ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
The Relationship

This article uses a range of primary and secondary sources to analyse the work of the Irish Railway Commission 1836–39 and its challenge to the predominantly laissez-faire approach to railway development in Britain. The commission produced a model for developing railways with the state and public interest at its heart, and it advocated railways as a system that was planned to deliver specific political and economic objectives. It thereby threatened railway interests in Britain and mobilised senior political advocates of laissez-faire to defeat the commission. Nonetheless, its work was a substantial contribution to understanding Ireland and the weaknesses of nineteenth-century railway regulation that deserves a more prominent place in the history of the relationship between technology and politics.

scholarly journals "Zapiski domowe" biskupa Macieja Wołonczewskiego jako przyczynek do poznania sytuacji społecznej i językowej na terenie dawnego Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego pod władzą carów

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
Zofia Sawaniewska-Mochowa
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Grand Duchy

"The Domestic Notes" by Bishop Maciej Wołonczewski (Motiejus Valančius) as a contribution to the knowledge of the social and linguistic situation on the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the rule of the tsarsThe article introduces the interesting, albeit controversial, figure of Maciej Wołonczewski (Motiejus Valančius), an important member of the nineteenth-century clergy, and his Polish-language legacy. The bishop of Samogitia’s "Domestic Notes" document persecutions of the Catholic Church in Lithuania after the November and January Uprisings at the hands of Russian Tzarist authorities, and reflect the state of Polish language and its social functions in this historical period.Valančius’ manuscripts, published in the volume edited by the historians Aldona Prašmantaitė and Jan Jurkiewicz [Motiejus Valančius, Namų užrašai (The Domestic Notes), Vilnius: Baltos Lankos, 2003], were subjected to the far-reaching standardization of spelling, thus they are not a reliable source for a linguistic research. A linguist, who would make the effort of describing the Polish language of the author, should therefore locate and take advantage the original sources, dispersed in various archives in Vilnius. "Домашние записки" епископа Матвея Волончевского. К вопросу о социальной и языковой обстановке на территории бывшего Великого княжества Литовского во время царского правленияСтатья приближает интересную, но спорную, личность священника XIX-го века и его письменное наследие на польском языке. Заметки епископа Матвея Волончевского документируют репрессии, применяемые царским правительством по отношению к Католической церкви в Литве после восстаний против царской власти, и – одновременно – отражают состояние тогдашнего польского языка и его общественные функции. Изданные в научной разработке историков: Альдоны Прашмантайте и Яна Юркевича рукописи Волончевского [Motiejus Valančius, Namų užrašai (Домашние заметки), Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 2003] сильно кодифицированы и не могут быть достоверным источником лингвистических исследований. Лингвист, который захочет изучить польский язык жемайтского автора, будет вынужден работать с подлинниками, разбросанными по разным вильнюсским архивным фондам.

Theosis in Early Twentieth-Century Russian Religious Thought

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 ◽  
Russian Religious Thought ◽  
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.

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