Pavel Florensky | |
|---|---|
 Father Pavel Florensky | |
| Born | Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky 21 January 1882 Yevlakh,Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 8 December 1937(1937-12-08) (aged 55) Leningrad Oblast,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | Imperial Moscow University |
| Academic advisor | Nikolai Bugaev |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Russian philosophy |
| School | Christian philosophy Sophiology |
| Main interests | Philosophy of religion |
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (alsoP. A. Florenskiĭ,Florenskii,Florenskij;Russian:Па́вел Алекса́ндрович Флоре́нский;Armenian:Պավել Ֆլորենսկի,romanized: Pavel Florenski; 21 January [O.S. 9 January] 1882 – December 8, 1937) was aRussian Orthodoxtheologian,priest,philosopher,mathematician,physicist,electrical engineer,inventor,polymath,neomartyr andfolk saint.[1] During the later twentieth century, statements had appeared noting a recognition by the Russian Orthodox Church of him as asaint, though it was later firmly noted that no such decision had been made.[2]
Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky was born on 21 January [O.S. 9 January] 1882 in the town ofYevlakh inElisabethpol Governorate (in present-dayAzerbaijan) into the family of a railroad engineer, Aleksandr Florensky. His father came from a family ofRussian Orthodox priests while his mother Olga (Salomia) Saparova (Saparyan, Sapharashvili) was of theTbilisiArmenian nobility inGeorgia.[3][4][5] His maternal grandmother Sofia Paatova (Paatashvili) was from an Armenian family from Karabakh, living inBolnisi,Georgia.[6] Florensky "always searched for the roots of his Armenian family" and noted that they came fromKarabakh.[7]
Florensky completed his high school studies (1893-1899) at theTbilisiclassical lyceum, where several companions were later to distinguish themselves, among them the founder of RussianCubo-Futurism,David Burliuk. In 1899, Florensky underwent a religious crisis, connected to a visit toLeo 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 theImperial Moscow University and studied underNikolai Bugaev, and became friends with his son, the future poet and theorist ofRussian symbolism,Andrei Bely. He was particularly drawn toGeorg Cantor'sset 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"[8] In 1904 he graduated from the Imperial Moscow University and declined a teaching position at the university: instead, he proceeded to study theology at theEcclesiastical Academy inSergiyev Posad. During his theological studies there, he came into contact withElder Isidore on a visit to Gethsemane Hermitage, and Isidore was to become his spiritual guide and father. Together with fellow students Ern, Svenitsky and Brikhnichev he founded a society, theChristian Struggle Union (Союз Христиaнской Борьбы), with the revolutionary aim of rebuilding Russian society according to the principles ofVladimir Solovyov. Subsequently he was arrested for membership in this society in 1906: however, he later lost his interest in theRadical Christianity movement.
During his studies at the Ecclesiastical Academy, Florensky's interests includedphilosophy,religion,art andfolklore. He became a prominent member of theRussian Symbolism movement, together with his friend Andrei Bely and published works in the magazinesNew Way (Новый Путь) andLibra (Весы). He also started his main philosophical work,The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: an Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters. The complete book was published only in 1914 but most of it was finished at the time of his graduation from the academy in 1908.
According to the forward in a book of his letters published by thePrinceton University Press: "The book is a series of twelve letters to a 'brother' or 'friend,' who may be understood symbolically asChrist. Central to Florensky's work is an exploration of the various meanings of Christian love, which is viewed as a combination ofphilia (friendship) andagape (universal love). He describes the ancient Christian rites of theadelphopoiesis (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 theDivine Sophia, who has become one of the central concerns of feminist theologians."[9]
Recent research byMichael Hagemeister, known mostly for his work onThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has authenticated that antisemitic material, written under a pseudonym, is in Florensky's hand.[citation needed] 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 theBlack 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.[10] He continued to teach philosophy and lived atTroitse-Sergiyeva Lavra until 1919. In 1911, he was ordained into the priesthood. In 1914, he wrote his dissertation,About Spiritual Truth. He published works on philosophy, theology, art theory, mathematics andelectrodynamics. Between 1911 and 1917, he was the chief editor of the most authoritative Orthodox theological publication of that time,Bogoslovskiy Vestnik. He was also a spiritual teacher of the controversial Russian writerVasily Rozanov, urging him to reconcile with the Orthodox Church.
Florensky was influenced byRudolf Steiner.[11]
After theOctober Revolution he formulated his position as: "I have developed my own philosophical and scientific worldview, which, though it contradicts the vulgar interpretation ofcommunism... does not prevent me from honestly working in the service of the state." After the Bolsheviks closed the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (1918) and the Sergievo-Posad Church (1921), where he was the priest, he moved toMoscow to work on theState Plan for Electrification of Russia (ГОЭЛРО) under the recommendation ofLeon Trotsky who strongly believed in Florensky's ability to help the government in the electrification of rural Russia. According to contemporaries, Florensky in his priest's cassock, working alongside other leaders of a Government department, was a remarkable sight.
In 1924, he published a largemonograph ondielectrics. He worked simultaneously as the Scientific Secretary of theHistorical Commission on Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra and published his works on ancient Russian art. He was rumoured to be the main organizer of a secret endeavour to save therelics of St.Sergii Radonezhsky whose destruction had been ordered by the government.
In the second half of the 1920s, he mostly worked on physics and electrodynamics, eventually publishing his paperImaginary numbers inGeometry («Мнимости в геометрии. Расширение области двухмерных образов геометрии») devoted to the geometrical interpretation ofAlbert Einstein'stheory of relativity. Among other things, he proclaimed that the geometry of imaginary numbers predicted by the theory of relativity for a body moving faster than light is the geometry of the Kingdom of God. For mentioning the Kingdom of God in that work, he was accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda by Soviet authorities.
In 1928, Florensky was exiled toNizhny Novgorod. After the intercession ofEkaterina Peshkova (wife ofMaxim Gorky), Florensky was allowed to return to Moscow. On 26 February 1933 he was arrested again, on suspicion of engaging in a conspiracy with Pavel Gidiulianov, a professor of canon law who was a complete stranger to Florensky, to overthrow the state and install, with Nazi assistance, a fascist monarchy.[12] He defended himself vigorously against the imputations until he realized that by showing a willingness to admit them, though false, he would enable several acquaintances to resecure their liberty. He was sentenced to ten years in thelabor camps by the infamousArticle 58 ofJoseph Stalin's criminal code (clauses ten and eleven: "agitation against the Soviet system" and "publishing agitation materials against the Soviet system"). The published agitation materials were the monograph about the theory of relativity.[citation needed][dubious –discuss] His manner of continuing to wear priestly garb annoyed his employers. The state offered him numerous opportunities to go into exile in Paris, but he declined them.
He served at theBaikal Amur Mainline camp until 1934 when he was moved toSolovki, where he conducted research into producingiodine andagar out of the localseaweed. In 1937 he was transferred toLeningrad (nowSaint Petersburg) where, on 25 November, he was sentenced by anextrajudicialNKVD troika to death. According to a legend he was sentenced for the refusal to disclose the location of the head of St.Sergii Radonezhsky that the communists wanted to destroy. The saint's head was indeed saved and in 1946 the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra was opened again. The relics of St. Sergii became fashionable once more. The saint's relics were returned to Lavra by Pavel Golubtsov, later known as Archbishop Sergiy.[citation needed]
After sentencing, Florensky was transported in a special train together with another 500 prisoners to a location near Leningrad, 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, nearToksovo, located about twenty kilometers northeast of Leningrad 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.[13] In 1997, a mass burial ditch was excavated in theSandarmokh forest, which may well contain his remains. His name was registered in 1982 among the list ofNew Martyrs andConfessors.[14]
He was posthumouslyrehabilitated in 1958 (of the 1933 charges) and 1959 (of the 1937 charges.)
Florensky, often read for his contributions to thereligious 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 theTartu school ofsemiotics, 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 theRussian 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",[15] a concept which Florensky, likeErwin Panofsky later, picked up from Oskar Wulff's 1907 essay, 'Die umgekehrte Perspektive und die Niedersicht.[16] 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,[17] 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".[18][19]
