Vladimir Solovyov

The Russian philosopher and religious thinker Vladimir Sergeevich Soloviev (1853-1900) was an early exponent of the ecumenical movement. He was also a leader of the modern reaction against extreme rationalism.

Vladimir Soloviev was born on Jan. 28, 1853, the second son of a distinguished historian. He graduated from Moscow Gymnasium No. 1 in 1869 and entered the science faculty at Moscow University. Three years later he transferred to the philosophy faculty, graduating in 1873, and then attended classes in the seminary of the St. Sergius Monastery. He also studied European philosophy in preparation for his master of arts thesis, an attack on materialism which was accepted in 1874 (The Crisis of Western Philosophy). He lectured for a year at Moscow University and then took a leave in England. In the British Museum he had a vision of a beautiful woman whom he identified as Sophia, or the Divine Wisdom (he had first seen her when he was only 9 years old). This time she told him to go to Egypt, where in November 1875 she appeared to him in the desert.

This desert vision changed Soloviev's life. He became increasingly interested in religion. In 1877 he took a post in the Education Ministry in St. Petersburg, where he was close to Slavophile circles. In 1878 he completed his Treatise on God-Manhood. Two years later his doctoral dissertation (Critique of Abstract Principles) was accepted. His public lecturing was suppressed after April 1881 because of his appeal to spare the lives of those who had assassinated Alexander II, an appeal which incensed the authorities.

The decade from 1881 to 1890 was the fullest in Soloviev's life, a period of intense work for the reconciliation of the churches. He worked closely with J. G. Strossmayer, Archbishop of Djakovo (in what is now Yugoslavia), who wished to unite the Slavs with the West under the Pope. In 1888 Soloviev traveled to Paris with his latest book (written in French), Russia and the Universal Church, but had little success with French Catholics.

The last decade of Soloviev's life was one of frustration and growing darkness. He continued to write profusely, notably, Three Meetings (1897) and The Justification of the Good (1898). His 1898 trip to Egypt greatly depressed him. In the last year of his life he published Three Conversations, which he considered his most important book, even though it repudiated much of his earlier work. He died at Uzkoe, the estate of the Trubetskoys, on Aug. 13, 1900.

Further Reading

S.L. Frank, ed., A Solovyev Anthology (1950), is poorly translated but remains much better than any of the books in English about Soloviev. Probably the best concise treatment of Soloviev's life and ideas is the chapter on him in Nicolas Zernov, Three Russian Prophets (1944). Written from the Roman Catholic point of view, Maurice d'Herbigny, Soloviev: A Russian Newman (trans. 1918), is rather turgid and one-sided; the chapter on Soloviev in Karl Pfleger, Wrestlers with Christ (trans. 1936), is cursory; and Egbert Munzer, Solovyev: Prophet of Russian Western Unity (1956), is intellectually shoddy.

Additional Sources

Stremooukhoff, D., Vladimir Soloviev and his messianic work, Belmont, Mass.: Nordland Pub. Co., 1980, 1979.

Sutton, Jonathan, The religious philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov: towards a reassessment, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.

(1853 - 1900), philosopher, theologian, journalist, poet, literary critic.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Vladimir Soloviev sought to counter the secular trend in Russian thought by articulating a world view grounded in Christianity. As a young man, Soloviev seemed destined to become the foremost academic philosopher of the Slavophile school, and his early works, such as The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Positivists (1874), reflected Slavophile themes, but in time he gravitated from Slavophilism to Westernism, much like his father, the renowned historian Sergei Mikhailovich Soloviev. When Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, Soloviev called upon the new tsar to set an example of Christian forgiveness by sparing the lives of the terrorists. The ensuing scandal led to his exile from Russia's government-controlled universities, a lifelong career as an independent writer, and eventually an association with the liberal journal Vestnik Evropy (European Messenger). Soloviev led an unconventional life as a kind of secular monk dedicated to intense intellectual work; the result was a remarkable output of philosophy, theology, poetry, literary criticism, and social commentary.

Soloviev's philosophical approach was a synthesis of Western philosophy (particularly German idealist thought) and the Orthodox faith in which he had been raised. His philosophical system emphasized the integration of science, philosophy, and religion. At the center of his philosophical outlook was the concept of the unity of all - the idea that the world was an Absolute in the process of becoming. On this basis, he developed a unique Christian metaphysics in his Lectures on God-Manhood (1877 - 1881). He argued that reality had been fractured by the Fall, and that history, the center of which was the Incarnation of Christ (the "Godman"), was a process leading to renewal of the unity of all. In this work, he also introduced the elusive concept of Sophia, which at various times he referred to as the "world soul," the ideal of a perfect humanity, and the "eternal feminine" principle in the Divine.

Soloviev's fascination with Sophia was reflected in personal mystical experience. His reputation as a mystic derived from his poetry, most famously the poem "Three Meetings," in which he described three encounters with Sophia, first as a young boy, then during his studies in the British Museum, and finally in the Egyptian desert.

Meanwhile Soloviev was developing a liberal theology similar to the Social Gospel movement in the West. He criticized conservative intellectuals for compromising the moral claims of the Gospels, and advocated unification of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. Soloviev's enthusiastic ecumenism provoked a nationalist backlash, which in turn led to his Christian critique of nationalism (The National Question in Russia, 2 vols., 1888, 1891). Soloviev went on to produce a wide-ranging ethical treatise, The Justification of the Good (1897), in which he provided an overall theory as well as practical discussion of such issues as nationalism, capitalism, and war. He also contributed to the development of a liberal philosophy of law in Russia.

In the year of his untimely death at age forty-seven, Soloviev published Three Conversations on War, Progress, and the End of History, a controversial work of fiction that questioned the efficacy of human action in an evil world. The work concluded with "The Short Tale of the Anti-Christ," a futuristic story about the end of the world. Some scholars argue that Soloviev here rejected his liberal theology, but others contend that the central meaning of the story is consistent with his earlier work, because a unified, truly ecumenical humanity triumphs.

A uniquely independent thinker during his life, Soloviev had great influence after his death. His theology inspired social activism among some Orthodox clergy, a trend cut short by the Bolshevik Revolution. His philosophy paved the way for Orthodox thinkers like Sergei Bulgakov and Pavel Florensky. His mystical poetry inspired symbolists like Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely. And after the Soviet Union came to an end, many Russians returned to Soloviev as a guidepost for creating a new Russian philosophy.

Bibliography

Copleston, Frederic C. (1986). Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Berdyaev. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.

Gaut, Greg. (1998). "Can a Christian Be a Nationalist? Vladimir Soloviev's Critique of Nationalism." Slavic Review 57:77 - 94.

Groberg, Kristi A. (1992). "The Feminine Occult Sophia in the Russian Religious Renaissance: A Bibliographic Essay." Canadian-American Slavic Studies. 26:197 - 240.

Kline, George L. (1985). "Russian Religious Thought." In Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West. Vol. 2, ed. Ninian Smart. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kornblatt, Judith, and Gustafson, Richard, eds. (1996). Russian Religious Thought. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Sutton, Jonathan. (1988). The Religious Philosophy of Vladimir Soloviev: Towards a Reassessment. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Walicki, Andrzej. (1987). Legal Philosophies of Russian Liberalism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

—GREG GAUT

Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)

Russian philosophy 19th-century philosophy
Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
Full name	Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
Born	January 28, 1853(1853-01-28)
Died	August 13, 1900 (aged 47)
School/tradition	Russian symbolism
Influenced Berdyaev, Bulgakov, Florensky, Frank, Belyi, Blok

Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (Russian: Влади́мир Серге́евич Соловьёв; January 28 [O.S. January 16] 1853 – August 13 [O.S. July 31] 1900) was a Russian philosopher, poet, pamphleteer, literary critic, who played a significant role in the development of Russian philosophy and poetry at the end of the 19th century. Solovyov (the last name derives from "соловей", "solovey", Nightingale in Russian) played a significant role in the Russian spiritual renaissance in the beginning of the 20th century. Solovyov is said to have died a pauper, homeless.

Contents 1 Life and work 2 Influence 3 Sophiology 4 Sobornost 5 Criticism 6 Quotes 7 Bibliography 8 Further reading 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Life and work

Vladimir Solovyov was born in Moscow on 16 January 1853, in the family of well-known Russian historian Sergey Mikhaylovich Solovyov (1820 – 1879).^[1] His mother, Polixena Vladimirovna, belonged to a Ukrainian-Polish family, having among her ancestors a remarkable thinker the 18th century Hryhori Skovoroda (1722 – 1794).^{[citation needed]}

In his teens Solovyov renounced Orthodox Christianity for nihilism though later Solovyov changed his earlier convictions and began expressing views in line again with the Russian Orthodox Church.^[2] What prompted this radical change appears to be Solovyov's disapproval of the Positivist movement.^[2] In Solovyov's The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Positivists he attempted to discredit the Positivists' rejection of Aristotle's essentialism or philosophical realism. In Against the Postivists, Solovyov took the position of intuitive noetic comprehension, noesis or insight stating consciousness, in being is integral (Russian term being sobornost) and has to have both phenomenon (validated by dianonia) and noumenon validated intuitively.^[2] Positivism according to Solovyov only validates the phenomenon of an object denying the intuitive reality people experience as part of their consciousness.^[2] Vladimir Solovyov was also known to be a very close friend and confidant of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In opposition to Dostoevsky's apparent views of the Roman Catholic church, Solovyov has been rumored to have converted to Roman Catholicism four years before his death. It could be said that he did this to engage in the reconciliation (ecumenism, sobornost) between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, a reconciliation that Solovyov outspokenly favored, but Solovyov himself always maintained that he was still a Russian Orthodox believer and that he had never left the Orthodox faith.^[3][4] The rumor that Solovyov converted to Roman Catholicism has been discarded as inaccurate by scholars. ^[5] Solovyov believed that his mission in life was to move people toward reconciliation or absolute unity or sobornost.

Vladimir Solovyov by Ivan Kramskoy, 1885.

Influence

It is widely held that Solovyov was Dostoevsky's inspiration for the characters Alyosha Karamazov and Ivan Karamazov from The Brothers Karamazov.^[6] Solovyov's influence can also be seen in the writings of the Symbolist and Neo-Idealist of the later Russian Soviet era. His book The Meaning of Love can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata (1889).

He influenced the religious philosophy of Nicolas Berdyaev, Sergey Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Nikolai Lossky, Semen L. Frank, the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and also on the poetry and theory of Russian symbolism, viz. Andrei Belyi, Alexander Blok Solovyov's nephew, and others. Hans Urs von Balthasar explores his work as one example of seven lay styles that reveal the glory of God's revelation, in volume III of the The Glory of the Lord (pp. 279-352).

Sophiology

Main article: Sophiology

Solovyov compiled a philosophy based partly on Hellenistic pagan philosophy (see Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus) and also early church Patristic tradition along with Buddhism and Hebrew Kabblahistic elements (i.e. Philo of Alexandra). Solovyov also studied Gnosticism and seemed to be heavily influenced by the gnostic works of Valentinus.^[7] Solovyov's religious philosophy was syncretic and fused many of the philosophical elements of various religious traditions with that of the Eastern Orthodox church and also Solovyov's own personal experience of the Sophia. Solovyov described his encounters with the entity Sophia in his works the Three Encounters and Lectures on Godmanhood among others. Solovyov's fusion was driven by the desire to reconcile and or unite with Eastern Orthodoxy these various traditions via the Russian Slavophiles' concept of sobornost. His Russian religious philosophy had a very strong impact on the Russian Symbolist art movements of his time.^[8] Solovyev's teaching on Sophia have been deemed a heresy by ROCOR and condemned as unsound and unorthodox by the Patriarchate of Moscow.^[9]

Sobornost

Vladimir Solovyov by Nikolai Yaroshenko, 1892.

Main article: Sobornost

Solovyov sought through his works to create a form of philosophy, that could through his system of logic or reason, reconcile all various bodies of knowledge or disciplines of thought. It was Solovyov's goal to fuse all conflicting concepts into a single systematic form of reason. It was this complete form of philosophy that Solovyov presented as being Russian philosophy. That based on the central components of the slavophile movement, all forms of reason could be reconciled into one single form of logic. The heart of this reconciliation as logic or reason was the concept sobornost (organic or Spontaneous order through integration) which is also the Russian word for catholic. Solovyov sought to find and validate the common ground and or where various conflicts found common ground and by focusing on this common ground to establish absolute unity and or integral^[10] fusion of opposing ideas and or peoples.^[11]

Criticism

Solovyov is extensively criticized by Dmitry Galkovsky in the 1988 philosophical novel The Infinite Deadlock. Galkovsky cites Solovyov's early adoption of nihilist views, and later renunciation of them, as evidence of Solovyov's opportunism. He also characterizes Solovyov's writings on theocracy as a "parodic hybrid of slavophilic nationalism with Western nihilism."^[12] In Galkovsky's radical interpretation, Solovyov emerges as an impostor whose primary goal was to create a caricatured form of religious conservatism that would draw audiences away from more "authentic" nationalists such as Yuri Samarin.

Quotes

"As long as the dark foundation of our nature, grim in its all-encompassing egoism, mad in its drive to make that egoism into reality, to devour everything and to define everything by itself, as long as that foundation is visible, as long as this truly original sin exists within us, we have no business here and there is no logical answer to our existence. Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do. And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure."

Bibliography

• The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against the Postivists by V Solovyov Lindisfarne Press 1996 ISBN 0-940262-73-8
• The Justification of the Good
• The Meaning of Love
• War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ
• Russia and the Universal Church

Further reading

• Kristi Groberg, ‘Vladimir Sergeevich Solov’ev: a bibliography’, Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, vol.14-15, 1998
• Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, ‘Vladimir Sergeevich Solov’ev’, Dictionary of Literary Bibliography, v295 (2004), pp377–386
• Dimitrii N.Stremooukhoff, Vladimir Soloviev and his messianic work (Paris, 1935; English translation: Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1980)
• Jonathan Sutton, The religious philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov: towards a reassessment (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1988)
• Nicholas Zernov, Three Russian prophets (London: SCM Press, 1944)
• Nikolai Lossky History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951)

See also

• Russian philosophy
• Vladimir Lossky
• Apophatic theology
• N. O. Lossky
• Mikhail Epstein
• Leo Mikhailovich Lopatin
• Phronesis
• List of Christian mystics

References

1. ^ Dahm, Helmut and Wright, Kathleen. Vladimir Solovyev and Max Scheler: Attempt at a Comparative Interpretation, page 219. Springer, 1975
2. ^ ^{a b c d} History of Russian Philosophy section on Solovyov «История российской Философии »(1951) by N. O. Lossky,^{[page needed]} Publisher: Allen & Unwin, London ASIN: B000H45QTY International Universities Press Inc NY, NY ISBN 978-0823680740 sponsored by Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
3. ^ History of Russian Philosophy Nikolas Lossky, pp. 84-85.
4. ^ Solovyov never became Catholic. pg 45 Russian Messianism: Third Rome, Holy Revolution, Communism and After By Peter J. S. Duncan Published by Routledge, 2000 ISBN 0415152054, 9780415152051 [1]
5. ^ Politics, Law, and Morality: Essays By Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, Vladimir Wozniuk Translated by Vladimir Wozniuk Edition: illustrated Published by Yale University Press, 2000 ISBN 0300079958, 9780300079951 pg302 [2]
6. ^ Zouboff, Peter, Solovyov on Godmanhood: Solovyov’s Lectures on Godmanhood Harmon Printing House: Poughkeepsie, New York, 1944; see Czeslaw Milosz’s introduction to Solovyov’s War, Progress and the End of History. Lindisfarne Press: Hudson, New York 1990.
7. ^ Russian Religious Thought by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt (Editor), Richard F. Gustafson (Editor), pp. 49-67, Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (October 1, 1996) Language: English ISBN 0299151344 and ISBN 978-0299151348
8. ^ Russian Religious Thought by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt (Editor), Richard F. Gustafson (Editor), pp. 49-67 Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (October 1, 1996) Language: English ISBN 0299151344 and ISBN 978-0299151348
9. ^ [3]OCA labels Sophianism of Solovyev as heresy
10. ^ Dostoevsky and Soloviev: The Art of Integral Vision By Marina Kostalevsky [4]
11. ^ History of Russian Philosophy «История российской Философии »(1951), pp. 81-134.
12. ^ Galkovsky, D. The Infinite Deadlock, comment 564, p. 634 (3rd ed.) Dmitry Galkovsky's Publishing House, 2008.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov

• Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) - entry on Solovyov at Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888992298/ref=pd_rvi_gw_1/104-6300569-7325509?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
• http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300060963
• http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/end/antichrist.shtml
• ALEXANDER II AND HIS TIMES: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky Several chapters on Solovyov
• http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/s/solovyov.htm
• http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/soloviev/soloviev.html
• http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/soloviev/biffi.html (address by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi)
• http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9068629/Vladimir-Sergeyevich-Solovyov
• http://www.valley.net/~transnat/solsoc.html
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solovyov/
• Tale of the Anti-Christ - excerpt from Three Conversations by Solovyov
• Civil Society and National Religion: Problems of Church, State, and Society in the Philosophy of Vladimir Solov'ëv (1853-1900) - research project at Centre for Russian Humanities Studies, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
• http://rumkatkilise.org/necplus.htm

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