The books of Pavel Florensky had a great influence on many Orthodox Christians. This is a famous domestic theologian, priest, religious philosopher, poet and scientist. His main works are “The Pillar and Affirmation of Truth,” “On the Watersheds of Thought.”
Florensky Biography
The books of Pavel Florensky today are known to everyone who is interested in religious philosophy. Their author was born in 1882 in Yevlakh on the territory of modern Azerbaijan.
He graduated from the Tiflis gymnasium, studied at the Moscow University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. As a student, he became interested in the teachings of Vladimir Solovyov. After university, he entered the capital's theological academy. There, he developed the idea of one of the best books by Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky, “The Pillar and the Affirmation of Truth,” which he completed by the end of his studies.
He called the October Revolution a living apocalypse, welcoming it. But over time, he began to more and more lean towards theocratic monarchism in his views. At the same time, he is approaching Vasily Rozanov, becoming his confessor. People around him denounce him, accusing him of organizing a monarchist circle.
In 1928 he was sent to exile in Nizhny Novgorod, only through the efforts of Ekaterina Peshkova he was allowed to leave for Prague, but Florensky decided to stay in Russia. Since the beginning of the 30s, a massive press campaign has been unfolding against him.
In 1933 he was arrested, sentenced to ten years in prison. He is sent to the East Siberian camp "Free" in the Amur Region. A year later he was transferred to the Solovetsky camp. In November 1937 he was sentenced to death and executed. Relatives were informed that he died in December 1943, but this was not true.
In 1959 he was finally rehabilitated in all negotiations.
"Pillar and statement of truth"
The most famous book of Paul Florensky - "The Pillar and the statement of truth." This work has the subtitle “The Experience of the Orthodox Theodicy in 12 Letters”. This composition was conceived by the religious philosopher as a master's thesis when he studied at the academy.
In this theological and philosophical treatise, the author begins with a study of Orthodox churchness, the essence of which he sees in the experience of experiencing spiritual life. With the help of this excursion, he overcomes Kantian agnosticism, which leads to human wisdom, considered to be imperfect.
This book by Pavel Florensky claims that the mind itself is not able to comprehend the truth. The philosopher proves that in Russian the words “truth” and “are” are related, coming to the conclusion that truth is a living being.
Analyzing translations of the word "truth" in different languages, he considers how different peoples perceive it. The Slavs ontologically, the Hellenes epistemologically, the Romans legally, and the Jews historically. These are the four aspects of truth that can exist.
Power of love
In this book of Paul Florensky, he notes the unreasonableness of truth, arguing that it is an absolute given and even above the mind. The philosopher discusses the core of the concepts of "kindness", "truth" and "beauty", coming to the conclusion that they all rely on love. And she is close to lust.
At the same time, Florensky insists on the transfer of love to the ontological plane from the psychological. A person idealizes his beloved, this priest compares with iconography, contrasting it with a caricature that emphasizes only the most negative features.
Coming to the conclusion that the transforming power of love, Florensky goes to the idea of Sofia, "the ideal person of the world." In conclusion, he notes that even heroism is valued less than friendship.
"At the watershed of thought"
In the book of Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky, “On the watershed of thought,” the Neoplatonist Jamblichus appears in the field of vision of the philosopher. This is an ancient philosopher, the head of the Syrian school of Neoplatonism. It was his comments and translations that were supposed as the basis of the master's thesis of the hero of our article.
As a result, Florensky comes to the idea of "anthropodicy", that is, the justification of man. It comes to his mind to replace the theodicy, which was devoted to his previous work.
The main thing in anthropodicy is that a person begins to test himself, seeing a personal inconsistency with God's image, and in the end comes to the necessity of undergoing purification. Further in the treatise are discussions about the categories of spiritual consciousness, holy sacraments and sacred rites, church science and art. The philosopher is trying to find the truth with the reader. The work itself is written in the form of lecture conversations, united by a single concept.
"Justification of the cosmos"
In the work of Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky there is also a real manual, which can be called the basis for the study of Russian culture and philosophy in the XX century.
In this book, the author includes two of his letters - to the Soviet scientist and naturalist Vladimir Vernadsky and historian Nikolai Kiselev, as well as articles by the religious philosopher "Macrocosm and Microcosm", "The universal human roots of idealism", "Empireya and Empiria", "Trinity-Sergius Lavra and Russia".
He had a special relationship with the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. After the October Revolution, he convinced the authorities that this was one of the main domestic spiritual values, which could not be preserved as a dead museum, as Florensky himself called it. It was these speeches that served as the beginning of a campaign against him, which included denunciations and incriminating newspaper articles.
"History and Philosophy of Art"
The book "History and Philosophy of Art" by Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (1882-1937) contains the studies and articles of the priest, which during his life were combined into a separate volume devoted to history, archeology, philosophy and art.
A separate place in this book is occupied by the works "Iconostasis", "Analysis of spatiality and time in artistic and graphic works, the article" The reverse perspective. "In the work of Florensky many articles on art are also included in this collection.
Using this list of works, one can fully appreciate the perception of the priest's views on art, and understand what his innovative contribution to contemporary art was.
"To my children"
While serving his sentence in the Solovetsky camp, Pavel Florensky wrote a work entitled "To my children. Memories of the past. Testament", which was first published in Russia only in 1992.
On the one hand, this is memoir prose, but in reality a much deeper work, in which there are many sincere confessions, personal thoughts, the fate of the author, which overlapped with the fate of the country at the beginning of the 20th century.
Ethical and philosophical reflections are present here, which allow a deeper understanding of the author’s ideas, the scale of his personality, the concept of the worldview of this great Russian religious philosopher.