The Paradoxes of Religious Consciousness: Leo Tolstoy in the Philosophical Criticism of Nicholai Berdyaev

Author(s):  
Olga A. Zhukova ◽  

The article is devoted to the analysis of N.A. Berdyaev’s perception of L.N. Tol­stoy’s work. Berdyaev’s philosophical criticism of the writer requires close at­tention and research because it allows us to formulate the most important ques­tion about philosophical vocabulary of Russian religious thinker. The essay examines not only Berdyaev’s critical interpretation of Tolstoy in its movement, but also the personal perception by the philosopher of Tolstoy as a great Russian writer. This paper explores the evolution of Berdyaev’s views on the problem of religious consciousness of Leo Tolstoy. I reveal the structural elements of Berdyaev’s personalistic metaphysics and analyze the main ideas of his eschato­logical ethics from the perspective of philosophical criticism of Tolstoy. I con­sider the modus of Berdyaev’s assessment of Tolstoy’s nihilism and discuss the ambiguity and complexity of Berdyaev’s attitude to the writer and religious thinker. This problem manifested itself, on the one hand, in Berdyaev’s identify­ing himself as a Russian thinker and a heir to the tradition of Solovyov, Dosto­evsky and Tolstoy, on the other hand, in sharp criticism of Tolstoy for his role in the crisis of Russian religious consciousness, which had irreversible conse­quences for the Russian state and society. This analysis proposes a new opinion on philosophical criticism of Berdyaev, as distinct from the traditional version, and introduces the thesaurus research strategy on Berdyaev’s religious philosophy.

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 346-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet Van Poucke ◽  
Alexandra Belikova

Journalistic texts, as a rule, contain a considerable number of metaphorically used expressions. This paper investigates the handling of metaphors in Russian translations of journalistic texts in order to reveal the different translation strategies used by the translators. The research is conducted in three consecutive steps. First, we identify all metaphors in a twofold corpus of 60 original Dutch, English and Finnish newspaper articles on the one hand, and their corresponding 60 translations into Russian on the other. Secondly, we compare the use of metaphors in the translations with their source texts in order to establish the translation strategies and to determine to which extent the metaphorical expressions in the target texts display a higher degree of foreignness than those used in the source texts. Finally, we analyze the cases of foreignization in the target texts in order to find an explanation for the use of this translation strategy. The investigation shows how foreignization is adopted by the translators in a certain number of specific contexts, making the Western discourse on Russian subjects more visible to the reader, especially in these cases where the source text contains metaphors that suggest a critical interpretation of the Russian state, society or the leaders of the country.


Author(s):  
G.M. Rebel

The article analyzes the reasons and character of historical and literary milestone change, which was fulfilled within the framework of Russian religious philosophy and literary studies of the 1920s. Literary and philosophical criticism of the Silver age made the creative works of Fyodor Dostoevsky the main subject of its interest and it predetermined the content of the literary criticism concepts of B.Engelhardt and M.Bakhtin, who influenced the following literary criticism to great extent. It brought some misrepresentation to the literary process interpretation of the second part of the 19 century, which still influences the university and school literature courses of the period. In particular the religious and philosophical studies and works of the 1910-1920s based on them broke the ideological and aesthetic connection between the creative works of Dostoevsky and Turgenev, the polemical character of Dostoevsky’s works concerning Turgenev was ignored. The article rebuilds the second half of the 19th century’s literary process logic, the consequence of Turgenev’s ideological novel and only after it, in connection with it and mainly in polemic with it - the ideological novel by Dostoevsky. The presumed comparison of the two genre modifications of the ideological novel allows to depict their common features on the one hand and on the other - the principal differences, aesthetic specificity, predetermined by the particular features of the artistic vision and strategies of Turgenev and Dostoevsky.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 471-478
Author(s):  
Peter A. Shevchenko

The article provides a comparative analysis of the influence of L.N. Tolstoy and I.I. Sergiev (John of Kronstadt) on the formation of personal worldview in Russian society. The analysis is based on the testimonies of the contemporaries and the previously not reissued publication of “Novy Put” (“New Way”) journal on the subject. In the context of the declared problematics, special attention is paid to the question of transformation of religious consciousness in the course of the personality formation in relation to the period under consideration (the beginning of the 20th century). The author reveals and analyzes the main components of the life stand of Tolstoy and Father John of Kronstadt in the context of their influence on contemporaries. The results of the study allow to reveal the following antitheses that characterize Tolstoy and John of Kronstadt, respectively: doubt - faith, search for oneself – following the once chosen path, preaching of non-resistance as part of the philosophy of not-doing (not doing evil) – preaching of active upholding of faith (doing good), “simple living” – real life with and for common people.


Author(s):  
Alexander V. Koltsov ◽  

The paper is an attempt to narrow down the notion of spiritual crisis which is now widely applied in research on history of culture of the 19th–20th centuries, with respect to history of German philosophy and observation of modern reli­giosity. The shift from the history of philosophy to the religious context is ful­filled through analysis of texts of two religious thinkers, A. Reinach and S. Frank, whose thought clearly demonstrates strong interconnection between the both fields. Analysis of contemporary studies on history of phenomenological philos­ophy (C. Möckel and W. Gleixner) lets firstly observe ways of application of Koselleck’s notion of crisis to investigations in the history of philosophy. Sec­ondly it discovers two possibilities of philosophical contextualization of the con­cept of spiritual crisis – on the one hand, as a constituent rhetorical element of the philosophical statement (Möckel), on the other hand, as a term which de­scribes the uniqueness of an intellectual situation of the beginning of the 20thcentury (Gleixner). Then these aspects of the rhetoric of crisis are applied to reli­gious philosophy of Reinach and Frank, what leads to interpretation of their works as a particular statement discovering the divine (or the holy) as a new cat­egory of religious consciousness.


Author(s):  
Svetlana M. Klimova ◽  

The article examines the phenomenon of the late Lev Tolstoy in the context of his religious position. The author analyzes the reactions to his teaching in Russian state and official Orthodox circles, on the one hand, and Indian thought, on the other. Two sociocultural images of L.N. Tolstoy: us and them that arose in the context of understanding the position of the Russian Church and the authorities and Indian public and religious figures (including Mahatma Gandhi, who was under his influence). A peculiar phenomenon of intellectually usL.N. Tolstoy among culturally them (Indian) correspondents and intellectually them Tolstoy among culturally us (representatives of the official government and the Church of Russia) transpires. The originality of this situation is that these im­ages of Lev Tolstoy arise practically at the same period. The author compares these images, based on the method of defamiliarisation (V. Shklovsky), which allows to visually demonstrate the religious component of Tolstoy’s criticism of the political sphere of life and, at the same time, to understand the psychological reasons for its rejection in Russian official circles. With the methodological help of defamiliarisation the author tries to show that the opinion of Tolstoy (as the writer) becomes at the same time the voice of conscience for many of his con­temporaries. The method of defamiliarisation allowed the author to show how Leo Tolstoy’s inner law of nonviolence influenced the concept of non­violent resistance in the teachings of Gandhi.


Thesis Eleven ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Laurindo Dias Minhoto

This article discusses some possibilities for a critical interpretation of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. On the one hand, this theory could provide a sophisticated new sociological account of well-known modern social pathologies, such as alienation and reification; on the other, it could be considered a crypto-normative model for the reciprocal mediation between system and environment in which neither blind tautologies nor colonizations would take place. I argue that as a normative model this theoretical matrix seems to resonate with aspects of Adorno’s negative dialectics between subject and object and that the involuntary promise it contains could be fully realized only under other social conditions. The article also presents a preliminary critique of neoliberalism reconceptualized in systems theoretical terms as a dedifferentiation machinery that aims at establishing the primacy of economic rationality and the formation of ‘industries’ in different social spheres.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 595-604
Author(s):  
Roman A. Romashov ◽  
Vladislav Yu. Panchenko ◽  
Ilyas A. Ermolaev ◽  
Larisa A. Petruchak

Introduction: being a structural and functional element of the state mechanism (a kind of “state within the state”), the prison system is transforming along with it. Accordingly, the image status of the prison itself and representatives of “prison authorities” and “prison population” is also changing. We bring to the fore the problem of understanding the term “system” in the context of the image status of the social system in general and the penal system in particular. We highlight the formation of semantic images and image statuses on the example of three social institutions (school, army, prison), which are similar in terms of parametric characteristics and functioning and qualitatively different in image status. The article comprehensively examines the bipolar image of the penal system: on the one hand, prison is inextricably linked with human misfortune, an evil that cannot be treated positively; on the other hand, as an instrument of state law enforcement policy, the prison guarantees the inevitability of punishment for a crime, ensuring the execution of punishment, protecting law-abiding citizens, which is a good thing for society and the state. Research materials and methods: the features of formation and functioning of the image status of the Russian penal (“prison”) system are considered in the context of the concept of cyclic political genesis. In accordance with this concept, in relation to the history of the unified Russian state, three cycles should be distinguished (imperial, Soviet, post-Soviet). Within the framework of each, Russia was represented by qualitatively different forms of state government, economic order, social structure, etc. At the same time, in such “different” Russian states, there were different models of prison systems, the formation and functioning of which, as well as the transformation of the image status, was carried out under the influence of state prison policy and under the influence of public consciousness (national mentality). Results: the current state of the Russian penal system can be described as transitional. Along with the legacy of the “Soviet past”, we observe serious changes proceeding from democratization and humanization of the political and legal system of the Russian Federation. Transformation of the image of the penal system is aimed at increasing the level of openness and forming a positive opinion about the functioning of the penitentiary system (the Concept for development until 2030). It is important that in the public consciousness the image of the penal system as a predominantly punitive prison system gradually be replaced by the idea of it as a penitentiary system, which is concerned primarily with “revival of the essence of humanity” in a person through awareness and repentance. As for the image status of employees of the penal system, the state can optimize it first of all by equalizing their official status with that of military personnel and special services employees, who, like representatives of the prison system, serve the Russian state, but are in a privileged position in relation to them. Increasing the prestige of the service in the penal system in the eyes of actual or potential employees implies the rejection of such differentiation.


2018 ◽  
pp. 127-156
Author(s):  
O. Sluzhaeva

Based on letters, archived documents and the works written by A. Dobrolyubov during his religious exploration, after he set off on a pilgrimage across Russia, this article considers the foundations of the poet’s religious teaching and its perception by peasants and ‘literate’ society. The researcher focuses on A. Dobrolyubov’s collections of poetry From the Invisible Book [Iz knigi Nevidimoy], My Eternal Fellow-Travellers [Moi vechnie sputniki] and the songs he composed for group performance during community/brotherhood gatherings. A particularly valuable input is provided by I. Yarkov’s archive about Dobrolyubov and his followers (kept at the manuscripts departments of the Russian State Library and the Samara M. Gorky Literary Museum).The researcher points out that Dobrolyubov’s religious teaching, which used to enjoy a big following across a wide geography, was either ignored or misinterpreted in literary circles, and that, once he cut off his ties with the intellectuals, his contemporaries began to compare Dobrolyubov with Leo Tolstoy and those characters of classical Russian literature whose devoted their lives to the search for God and the truth. Dobrolyubov’s ideas of refusal to perform military service, genuine emancipation of peasants, the inner revolution as a prerequisite for progress, a universal unity, and respect for folk culture are not unlike the values that shaped European democracies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
I. V. Yakushevich

This article presents a linguopoetic analysis of Boris Pasternak’s poem "Wind" ("Veter") from the position of the lingual embodiment of the duality of mythological worlds. This research focuses on the symbol of "the wind as a spirit", upon which the poem’s whole mystical idea relies. The purpose of this article is to reveal which the linguistic means used to translate the duality of mythological worlds, as well as how this cognition merges with the author’s experience and determines the poem’s figurative system and idea. The understanding of the duality of mythological worlds requires the law of participation (L. L vy-Bruhl) – the identification of the mental, emotional, and physical properties of a person and nature. In Pasternak’s poem, the suffering and rushing "I" of the deceased lyrical hero becomes the wind. In this study, the word-symbol "wind" is studied in the semantic and semiotic aspect as a sign. Its signifier is the lexeme wind meaning 'perceptual idea of an air flow'; signified – the symbolic meaning of 'spirit, soul, immortality', due to the etymological meaning of the word and pagan mythology. The results reveal that the symbol "wind" is the carrier of the duality of mythological worlds, and it programs the fictional world of the poem: on the one hand, these are the actual world of the lyrical heroine, the house, and the wind, which swings pine trees; on the other hand – the imaginary world of the spirit of the dead lyrical hero. The lexical resources of the poetic text translate this opposition in the ratio of the words I and wind, personal pronouns I and you, as well as the words ended and alive. At the grammatical level, the duality is expressed by the contrast of the verbal forms of the past and present time, as well as by the passage from the indirect thought (the lyrical hero’s mental monologue) to the 3rd person narrative about the wind and the pine trees and by the return of the poem to the lyrical hero’s indirect thought at the end. This is how Pasternak implements one of the main ideas of his novel "Doctor Zhivago" – the idea of immortality, which is confirmed in the article by referring to the novel’s macro context and biographical materials.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 01035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Bobyreva ◽  
Marina Zheltuhina ◽  
Olga Dmitrieva ◽  
Maryana Busygina

The article deals with the characteristics of religious discourse and peculiarities of religious consciousness; it is noted that religion and religious consciousness influence many constituents of culture and as a result of such influence religious philosophy, religious morality, religious art arise. Religious principle forms the basis of any culture. Main features and levels of religious consciousness realization are considered in the article. A large number of lexical units having religious origin and functioning in the language are evidence of the impact of religion on the culture formation. The impact of religion on the formation of culture is also manifested in common features of the normative base of a particular religion and culture in which it functions and the basis of which it forms.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document