The best books of Pavel Florensky

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:40

The books of Pavel Florensky had a great influence on many Orthodox Christians. This is a well-known Russian theologian, priest, religious philosopher, poet and scientist. His main works are "The Pillar and Ground of the Truth", "At the Watersheds of Thought".

Florensky's 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 the university he entered the capital's theological academy. There he had the idea of one of the best books by Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky "The Pillar and Ground 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 lean more and more towards theocratic monarchism in his views. At the same time, he becomes close to Vasily Rozanov, becoming his confessor. Surrounding people write denunciations against him, accusing him of organizing a monarchist circle.

In 1928 he was sent into exile in Nizhny Novgorod, only through the efforts of Ekaterina Peshkova he was allowed to leave for Prague, but Florensky decides to stay in Russia. Since the beginning of the 1930s, a massive press campaign has been unfolding against him.

In 1933, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. He is sent to the East Siberian camp "Svobodny" in the Amur Region. A year later he was transferred to the Solovetsky camp. In November 1937 he was sentenced to death and shot. Relatives were told that he died in December 1943, but this was not true.

In 1959 he was finally rehabilitated by all negotiations.

The pillar and ground of the truth

The most famous book by Pavel Florensky is "The Pillar and Ground of Truth". This work has the sub title "The experience of Orthodox theodicy in 12 letters". This essay was conceived by a 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 the Orthodox Church, the essence of which he sees in the experience of spiritual life. With this excursion, he overcomes Kantian agnosticism, which leads to human wisdom, which is considered imperfect.

This book by the author Pavel Florensky argues that the mind itself is not able to comprehendtruth. The philosopher proves that the words "truth" and "is" are related in Russian, coming to the conclusion that truth is a living being.

Analyzing the translations of the word "truth" in different languages, he considers how different nations perceive it. Slavs - ontologically, Hellenes - epistemologically, Romans - legally, and Jews - historically. These are the four aspects of truth that can exist.

Power of love

In this book by Pavel Florensky, he notes the unreasonableness of truth, arguing that it is an absolute given and even above reason. The philosopher talks about the core of the concepts of "kindness", "truth" and "beauty", coming to the conclusion that they are all based on love. And she is close to lust.

At the same time, Florensky insists on translating love into an ontological plane from a psychological one. A person idealizes his beloved, the priest compares this with icon painting, contrasting it with a caricature that emphasizes only the most negative features.

Coming to the conclusion about the transforming power of love, Florensky goes to the idea of Sophia, "the ideal personality of the world." In conclusion, he notes that even heroism is valued less than friendship.

At the watersheds of thought

In Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky's book "At the Watersheds of Thought", the philosopher's field of vision is the Neoplatonist Iamblichus. This is an ancient philosopher, the head of the Syrian school of Neoplatonism. It was his commentaries and translations that were supposed to bethe basics of the master's thesis of the hero of our article.

As a result, Florensky comes to the idea of "anthropodice", that is, the justification of man. She 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 eventually comes to the need for purification. Further in the treatise follows discussions about the categories of spiritual consciousness, the holy sacraments and sacred rites, church science and art. The philosopher tries to find the truth together with the reader. The work itself is written in the form of lecture conversations, united by a single idea.

Cosmic Justification

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 20th century.

This book by 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 "Macrocosmos and Microcosmos", "Universal Human Roots of Idealism", "Empyrean and Empyric", " 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 that could not be preserved in the form of a dead museum, as Florensky himself called it. It was these speeches that served as the beginning of the campaign against him, which includeddenunciations and accusatory articles in newspapers.

History and Philosophy of Art

The book "History and Philosophy of Art" by Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882-1937) contains research and articles by the priest, which during his lifetime were combined by him 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 visual works, the article "Reverse perspective". Florensky's work contains many articles on art, also included in this collection.

With the help of this list of works, one can fully appreciate the perception of the priest's views on art, understand what his innovative contribution to contemporary art criticism was.

To my children

While serving his sentence in the Solovetsky camp, Pavel Florensky wrote a work en titled "To my children. Memories of past days. 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 reflections, the fate of the author, which was superimposed on the fate of the country at the beginning of the 20th century.

Here there are also ethical and philosophical reflections that allow a deeper understanding of the author's ideas, the scale of his personality, the concept of the worldview of this great nationalreligious philosopher.