Christoph Schneider
All Articles by Christoph Schneider
Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies
Faith and Reason in Russian Religious Thought: Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky and the contemporary debate about onto-theology and fideism
This study investigates the relationship between faith and reason in two of the major works of Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov: The Pillar and Ground of the Truth (1914) and Unfading Light (1917). The essay relates Florensky’s and Bulgakov’s philosophical theologies to the ongoing debate about on- to-theology and fideism in Western philosophy and theology. The transition from onto-theology to fideism has been characterized by the French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux as a gradual de-absolutization of the law of identity and the law of sufficient reason. This theory is exemplified with reference to the work of Leibniz, Kant, and Heidegger. It is then explored whether Florensky’s and Bulgakov’s theological contributions can enable us to envisage a ‘third way’ that overcomes the dilemma between religious rational- ism and religious irrationalism. Both thinkers argue—though in different ways—that faith and reason are interdependent, and that the experiential and intuitive character of faith is incomplete without the rational scrutiny of Christian philosophy.
In this essay I explore what Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov have to contribute to the contemporary debate about faith and reason.1 I will mainly look at The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and Unfading Light.2 The Pillar was published in 1914, and Unfading Light just three years later, and there is in some respects a close connection between these two works of Orthodox theology and philosophy. Before I turn to Bulgakov and Florensky, I will give a brief overview of the two most radical positions regarding the relationship between faith and reason: religious rationalism—or on- to-theology, to use Heidegger’s famous term, and fideism—the belief that faith is independent of, or even adversarial to reason.3 Forms of religious rationalism were
I am reusing material from Christoph Schneider, ‘Au-delà des limites de la raison: réflexions sur l’ouvrage de Paul Florensky La Colonne et le Fondement de la Vérité (1914)’, Contacts. Revue orthodoxe de théologie et de spiritualité 65.1 (2013): 89–100.
Павел А. Флоренский, Столп и утверждение истины (Москва: Правда, 1990); Pavel Florensky, The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters, trans. Boris Jakim (Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1997); Сергей Булгаков, Свет невечерний. Созерцания и умозрения (Москва: Республика, 1994); Sergius Bulgakov, Unfading Light: Contemplations and Speculations, trans. Thomas Allan Smith (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: W.B. Eerdmans, 2012). The first page number always refers to the Russian original, followed by the English translation after the slash.
Martin Heidegger, ‘Die onto-theo-logische Verfassung der Metaphysik’, in Identität und Differenz (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006), 51–79; Thomas D. Carroll, ‘The traditions of deism’, Religous Studies 44.1 (2008): 1–22. It goes without saying that there is a wide range of positions between these two extreme poles. Moreover, both onto-theology and deism are umbrella terms that denote theological and philosophical tendencies, rather than clearly de ned approaches.