Pavel Florensky
20th-century philosophy | |
---|---|
Region | Russian philosophy |
School | Christian philosophy Sophiology |
Academic advisors | Nikolai Bugaev |
Main interests | Philosophy of religion |
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (also P. A. Florenskiĭ, Florenskii, Florenskij;
Biography
Early life
Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky was born on 21 January [
Florensky completed his high school studies (1893-1899) at the Tbilisi classical lyceum, where several companions were later to distinguish themselves, among them the founder of Russian Cubo-Futurism, David Burliuk. In 1899, Florensky underwent a religious crisis, connected to a visit to Leo Tolstoy caused by an awareness of the limits and relativity of the scientific positivism and rationality which had been an integral part of his initial formation within his family and high school. He decided to construct his own solution by developing theories that would reconcile the spiritual and the scientific visions on the basis of mathematics. He entered the department of mathematics of the Imperial Moscow University and studied under Nikolai Bugaev, and became friends with his son, the future poet and theorist of Russian symbolism, Andrei Bely. He was particularly drawn to Georg Cantor's set theory.[3]
He also took courses on ancient philosophy. During this period the young Florensky, who had no religious upbringing, began taking an interest in studies beyond "the limitations of physical knowledge"
Intellectual interests
During his studies at the Ecclesiastical Academy, Florensky's interests included
According to the forward in a book of his letters published by the Princeton University Press: "The book is a series of twelve letters to a 'brother' or 'friend,' who may be understood symbolically as Christ. Central to Florensky's work is an exploration of the various meanings of Christian love, which is viewed as a combination of philia (friendship) and agape (universal love). He describes the ancient Christian rites of the adelphopoiesis (brother-making), which joins male friends in chaste bonds of love. In addition, Florensky was one of the first thinkers in the twentieth century to develop the idea of the Divine Sophia, who has become one of the central concerns of feminist theologians."[9]
Recent research by Michael Hagemeister, known mostly for his work on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has authenticated that antisemitic material, written under a pseudonym, is in Florensky's hand. Florensky's biographer Avril Pyman evaluates Florensky's position regarding Jews as, contextually for the period, a middle way between liberal critics who excoriated at the time of the incident Russia's backwardness and the behaviour of instigators of pogroms like the Black Hundreds.
After graduating from the academy, he married Anna Giatsintova, the sister of a friend, in August 1910, a move which shocked his friends who were familiar with his aversion to marriage.
Period of Communist rule in Russia
After the
In 1924, he published a large
In the second half of the 1920s, he mostly worked on physics and electrodynamics, eventually publishing his paper
1928–1937: exile, imprisonment, death
In 1928, Florensky was exiled to
He served at the
After sentencing, Florensky was transported in a special train together with another 500 prisoners to a location near St. Petersburg, where he was shot dead on the night of 8 December 1937 in a wood not far from the city. The site of his burial is unknown. Antonio Maccioni states that he was shot at the Rzhevsky Artillery Range, near Toksovo, which is located about twenty kilometers northeast of Saint Petersburg and was buried in a secret grave in Koirangakangas near Toksovo together with 30,000 others who were executed by the NKVD at the same time.[12] In 1997, a mass burial ditch was excavated in the Sandarmokh forest, which may well contain his remains. His name was registered in 1982 among the list of New Martyrs and Confessors.[13]
He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1958 (of the 1933 charges) and 1959 (of the 1937 charges.)
Influence
Florensky, often read for his contributions to the religious renaissance of his time or scientific thinking, came to be studied in a broader perspective in the 1960s, a change associated with the revival of interest in neglected aspects of his oeuvre shown by the Tartu school of semiotics, which evaluated his works in terms of their anticipation of themes that formed part of the theoretical avant-garde's interests in a general theory of cultural signs at that time. Read in this light, the evidence that Florensky's thinking actively responded to the art of the Russian modernists. Of particular importance in this regard was their publication of his 1919 essay, delivered as a lecture the following year, on spatial organization in the Russian icon tradition, entitled "Reverse Perspective",[14] a concept which Florensky, like Erwin Panofsky later, picked up from Oskar Wulff's 1907 essay, 'Die umgekehrte Perspektive und die Niedersicht.[15] Here Florensky contrasted the dominant concept of spatiality in Renaissance art analysing the visual conventions employed in the iconological tradition. This work has remained since its publication a seminal text in this area down to the present day. In that essay,[16] his interpretation has recently been developed and reformulated critically by Clemena Antonova, who argues rather that what Florensky analysed is better described in terms of "simultaneous planes".[17][18]
See also
- Vladimir N. Beneshevich
- Theophilus of Antioch
- Imiaslavie
- Andrei N. Kolmogorov
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1928–1941)
- Superluminal speeds
- Tachyonic particle
- Imaginary mass fields
References
- ^ Flight from Eden
- ^ The Orthodox Messenger, Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, No. 30/31, pp. 5/6
- ^ a b Natalino Valentini, (ed.) Pavel Florenskij, La colonna e il fondamento della verità, San Paolo editore, 2010, p. lxxi.
- ^ Oleg Kolesnikov. "Pavel Florensky" (in Russian).
- ^ Pavel V. Florensky; Tatiana Shutova. "Pavel Florensky". Nashe Nasledie (in Russian)
- ^ Novoe vremya, 01/02/2018
- ^ Леонид Фридович Кацис, Кровавый навет и русская мысль: историко-теологическое исследование дела Бейлиса, Мосты культуры, 2006, 494 c., c. 389.
- ^ Salt of the Earth by Pavel Florensky
- ISBN 9780691117676.
- ^ Avril Pyman, Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius: The Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Russia's Unknown da Vinci, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010 p.86.
- ^ Avril Pyman, pp. 154ff.
- ^ Antonio Maccioni, "Pavel Aleksandrovič Florenskij. Note in margine all'ultima ricezione italiana", eSamizdat, 2007, V (1-2), pp. 471-478 Antonio Maccioni. "Pavel Aleksandrovic Florenskij" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-06-05. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
- ^ Natalino Valentini. Pavel A. Florenskij, San Paolo editore, Milan 2010 p.lxxxii.
- ^ Pavel Florensky (Nicoletta Misler ed.), Beyond Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art, Reaktion Books 2006 pp.197-272
- ^ Marcus Plested, Orthodox Readings of Aquinas, Oxford University Press 2012 p.9 and n.1.
- ^ Clemena Antonova, 'Changing prceptions of Pavel Florensky in Russian and Soviet Scholarship,' in Costica Bradatan, Serguei Oushakine (eds.) In Marx's Shadow: Knowledge, Power, and Intellectuals in Eastern Europe and Russia, Lexington Books, 2010 pp.73-94 pp.80, 82-83
- ^ Clemena Antonova, Space, Time, and Presence in the Icon: Seeing the World with the Eyes of God, Routledge, 2016 p.169.
- ^ Matthew J. Milliner, 'Icons as Theology:The Virgin Mary of Predestination,' in James Romaine, Linda Stratford (eds.)ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art, The Lutterworth Press, 2014 pp.73-94 p.86.
External links
Biographies
- (in Russian) Site devoted to Florensky
- (in Russian) Biography
- (in Russian) Hagiography
- (in Italian) Biography, by Abate Herman and Padre Damascene
Works
- The Pavel Florensky School of Theology and Ministry
- (in Italian) DISF: P.A. Florenskij - Voice by N. Valentini
- (in Italian) Paper about some Florenskij's book
- (in Italian) Florenskij in Italy - Article by A. Maccioni
- (in Greek) Page devoted to Florenskij
- Florensky, Pavel (2004). The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters. ]
- Florensky, Pavel (1999-02-13). Salt of the Earth (The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Russia Series. Vol. 2. Saint Herman Press. ISBN 0-938635-72-7.
- Florensky, Pavel (1922). Mnimosti in Geometry. Pomor'ye.
- Florensky, Pavel (1996). Iconostasis. ISBN 0-88141-117-5.
- Florensky, Pavel (2006-08-15). Beyond Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art. ISBN 978-1-86189-307-9.
- Florensky, Pavel. "Onomatodoxy as a Philosophical Premise (excerpts)". A. F. Losev page. Archived from the original on 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- "Pavel Florensky on Brotherhood Rite". Gay.ru. Russian National GLBT Center. Archived from the original (translated from Russian by Fr. German Ciuba) on 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Titova, Irina (2002-10-01). "'Russian da Vinci' May Be Among Remains". St. Petersburg Times. p. 73. Archived from the originalon 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- "Pavel Florensky's House - Sergiev Posad". Golden Ring of Russia. 2007-02-14. Archived from the original on 2007-05-28. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Leach, Joseph H. J. (Fall 2006). "Parallel Visions - A consideration of the work of Pavel Florensky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin". Theandros. 4 (1). Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Rhodes, Michael C. (Spring 2005). "Logical Proof of Antinomy: A Trinitarian Interpretation of the Law of Identity". Theandros. 2 (3). Archived from the original on 2005-06-21. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Berdyaev, Nikolai (February 1917). "Khomyakov and Fr. Florensky" (reprint, translation from Russian). Journal Russkaya Mysl (257). Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Steineger IV, Joseph E. (Spring–Summer 2006). "Cult, Rite, and the Tragic: Appropriating Nietzsche's Dionysian with Florenskii's Titanic". Theandros. 3 (3). Archived from the original on 2006-08-13. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Bird, Robert. "The Geology of Memory: Pavel Florensky's Hermeneutic Theology". equestrial.ru. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Seiling, Jonathan (September 2005). "Kant's Third Antinomy and Spinoza's Substance in the Sophiology of Florenskii and Bulgakov". Florensky Conference. Archived from the original (RTF document) on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Reardon, Patrick Henry (1998-09-01). "Truth Is Not Known Unless It Is Loved: How Pavel Florensky restored what Ockham stole". Books & Culture. Christianity Today. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- Dvoretskaya, Ekaterina. "Personal approach to Symbolic reality". crvp.org. Council for Research and Values in Philosophy. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-04.
- (in Italian) Florenskij, Pavel A. at Curlie