Judaism and Russian Religious Thought

2020 ◽  
pp. 342-359
Author(s):  
Dominic Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
German Language ◽  
Conservative Approach ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Russian Orthodoxy ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Blood Libel ◽  
Lev Shestov ◽  
Russian Religious Thought

This chapter examines the role played by Judaism, the pre-1917 Russian ‘Jewish Question’, and anti-Semitism in the philosophical and cultural formation of key Russian religious thinkers. It explores how Vladimir Soloviev laid the foundations for a common ‘liberal–conservative’ approach to Jews and Judaism, by using them as tropes for his thinking on Russian nationhood and religious identity. It then examines how Sergii Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky and Vassily Rozanov each used Judaic elements to forge a philosophy of ‘sacred materialism’. The question of these three thinkers’ anti-Semitic writings is considered as part of a more general irrationalist element in Russian conservative religious thought, and the philosophical effects of the 1911–1913 Beilis blood libel trial on the work of Rozanov and Florensky are analysed. Finally, the chapter looks at the work of four Jewish thinkers: Aaron Steinberg, Mikhail Gershenzon, Lev Shestov, and Semyon Frank (the latter, despite his conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, preserved a connection to a particular form of Jewishness, it is argued, especially through his devotion to the German language). The author concludes that they succeeded in creating a pan-European universalist version of Russian thought that enabled them to find an outlet for an original fusion of Russian and Jewish elements, which was forged in creative tension with their dual heritage.

Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Obolevitch
Keyword(s):  
Science And Religion ◽  
Synthetic Approach ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Theology And Science ◽  
Science In Russia ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lev Shestov ◽  
Lev Tolstoy ◽  
Russian Religious Thought ◽  
The Relationship

The book brings forth a comprehensive presentation of one of the most interesting of contemporary issues, namely an analysis of the relation between science and faith in Russian religious thought. It is a synthetic approach on the development of the problem throughout the whole history of Russian thought, starting from the medieval period and arriving in contemporary times. The key topic is considered the relationship between science and religion in the eighteenth century, the so-called academic philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the thought of Peter Chaadaev, the Slavophiles, and in the most influential literature figures, such as Fedor Dostoevsky and Lev Tolstoy. The book also analyzes two channels of the formation of philosophy in the context of the relationship between theology and science in Russia. The first is connected with the attempt to rationalize the truths of faith and is exemplified by Vladimir Soloviev and Nikolai Lossky; the second, the apophatic tradition, is presented by Fr. Pavel Florensky and Semen Frank. The book then describes the relation to scientific knowledge in the thought of Lev Shestov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergius Bulgakov, and Alexei Losev as well as the original project of Russian Cosmism (in the examples of Nikolai Fedorov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and Vladimir Vernadsky). Finally, the book presents the current state of the discussion on this topic by paying attention to the Neopatristic synthesis (Fr. Georges Florovsky and his followers) and offers a brief comparative analysis of the relationship between science and religion from the Western and Russian perspectives.

Jewish Question in the Ideology and Political Practice of Russian Monarchists in the Beginning of the 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 232-261
Author(s):  
Igor V. Omeliyanchuk
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Population ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Right ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
First World

The present article examines the place of the Jewish question in the ideology of the monarchist (right-wing, “black hundred”) parties. In spite of certain ideological differences in the right-wing camp (moderate Rights, Rights and extreme Right-Wing), anti-Semitism was characteristic of all monarchist parties to a certain extent, in any case before the First World War. That fact was reflected in the party documents, resolutions of the monarchist congresses, publications and speeches of the Right-Wing leaders. The suggestions of the monarchists in solving the Jewish questions added up to the preservation and strengthening of the existing restrictions with respect to the Jewish population in the Russian Empire. If in the beginning the restrictions were main in the economic, cultural and everyday life spheres, after the convocation of the State Duma the Rights strived after limiting also the political rights of the Jewish population of the Empire, seeing it as one of the primary guarantees for autocracy preservation in Russia, that was the main political goal of the conservatives.

scholarly journals Palamas and Florensky: The Metaphysics of the Heart in Patristic and Russian Philosophical Tradition

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Justyna Kroczak
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
Philosophical Issue ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Russian Philosopher ◽  
Russian Religious Thought

Тhis paper focuses on the philosophical issue known as the metaphysics of the heart within Orthodox Christianity – both Russian and Byzantie versions. Russian religious thought is based on patristic tradition. Influences and connections can be seen in Florensky’s philosophy of All-Unity. This Russian philosopher was highly inspired by Gregory Palamas, fourteenth-century Eastern Church. These two Orthodox thinkers, mainly their metaphysics of heart are objects of interests.

Medieval Roots of the Myth of Jewish Male Menses

2000 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irven M. Resnick
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Historical Fiction ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Ritual Murder ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Blood Libel ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
The Middle Ages

Good historical fiction reveals not only the realities of a particular epoch, but also its cultural attitudes. An excellent example is Bernard Malamud's The Fixer, which succeeds in disclosing the nature of Russian anti-semitism by artfully weaving together enduring themes of anti-Jewish Christian mythology—the blood libel and accusations of ritual murder—to illustrate the fabric of Jewish life in early modern Russia. Perhaps almost unnoticed in his work, however, are references to the myth of Jewish male menses. Consider the following passages from The Fixer, in which the Jewish defendant, Yakov Bok, is confronted by this bizarre contention:“You saw the blood?” the Prosecuting Attorney said sarcastically. “Did that have some religious meaning to you as a Jew? Do you know that in the Middle Ages Jewish men were said to menstruate?” Yakov looked at him in surprise and fright. “I don't know anything about that, your honor, although I don't see how it could be.”

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.

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