THE INFLUENCE OF BYZANTINE NEOPLATONISM AND PALAMISM ON THE FORMATION OF RUSSIAN RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The article looks at how translations from the Byzantine Neoplatonists influenced the early Russian theology. In particular, enormous impact of the Corpus Areopagiticum has been discovered. Scholars disagree as to how much Neoplatonism was instrumental in forming the early Russian theological thought. The article distinguishes two varieties of Neoplatonism in Russian Theology School philosophy. The works by F. Golybinsky, Archbishop Innokenty (Borisov), Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) and Father P. Florensky considered the formation of Orthodox theism as a transition from the ontology of Christian Platonism to Christian Neoplatonism. We can also assert that the orientation towards Plato was laid precisely through the Eastern Fathers, and not through the Latin influence.