Ivan Sergeevich Gagarin
Ivan Sergeevich Gagarin

Author: Jeffrey Bruce Beshoner

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2002-05-10

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0268159084

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ivan Sergeevich Gagarin analyzes questions of nationality and religious identity in nineteenth-century Russian history as reflected in the life of Jesuit priest Ivan Gagarin. A descendent of one of Russia’s most ancient and politically powerful families, Father Ivan Gagarin, S.J. (1814–1882) dedicated his life to creating a union between the Orthodox and Catholic churches that would preserve the dogmatic and traditional beliefs of both. Traditional understandings of Russian identity have emanated from the perspective of the dominant Orthodox religion; this captivating study uses the unionist work of Gagarin to illumine Russia's national identity from the perspective of Roman Catholicism. Seeing his unionist proposals as necessary for the preservation of Russian stability, Gagarin found himself in frequent opposition to the Orthodox Church. While Gagarin believed that Church union would preserve Russia from the threats of communism and revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church believed that union would mean the sacrifice of religious truth, ecclesial independence and religious orthodoxy. Jeffrey Beshoner’s even-handed analysis reveals that the Roman Catholic Church presented its own share of barriers to attempts at church union. Ivan Sergeevich Gagarin examines Roman Catholic attitudes of superiority vis-à-vis the Orthodox Church and argues that the nineteenth-century Roman Catholic Church simply did not possess the humility or respect for Eastern beliefs that church union required. Despite the failure of his unionist activity, Gagarin exerted important influence on such contemporary and later Roman Catholic and Russian thinkers as Pope Pius IX, Alexei Khomiakov and Vladimir Solovev. As the collapse of communism has permitted Russia to again seek its national identity in Russian Orthodoxy, Gagarin's ideas and perspectives on the relationship between national and religious identity continue to prove relevant.

Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church

Author: Tatyana V. Bakhmetyeva

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 1501757296

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sofia Petrovna Svechina (1782–1857), better known as Madame Sophie Swetchine, was the hostess of a famous nineteenth-century Parisian salon. A Russian émigré, Svechina moved to France with her husband in 1816. She had recently converted to Roman Catholicism, and the salon she opened acquired a distinctly religious character. It quickly became one of the most popular salons in Paris and was a meeting place for the French intellectual Catholic elite and members of the Liberal Catholic movement. As a salonniére, Svechina developed close friendships with some of the most noted public figures in the Liberal Catholic movement. Her involvement with her guests went deeper than the typical salonniére's. She was a mentor, spiritual counselor, and intellectual advisor to many distinguished Parisian men and women, and her influence extended beyond the walls of her salon into the public world of politics and ideas. In this fascinating biography, Tatyana Bakhmetyeva seeks to understand the creative process that informed Svechina's life and examines her subject in the context of nineteenth-century thought and letters. It will appeal to educated readers interested in European and Russian history, the history of Catholicism, and women's history.

Conscience and Conversion
Conscience and Conversion

Author: Thomas Kselman

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 030023564X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Religious liberty is usually examined within a larger discussion of church-state relations, but Thomas Kselman looks at several individuals in Restoration France whose high-profile conversions fascinated their contemporaries. Exploring their reasons and the repercussions they faced, Kselman demonstrates how this expanded sense of liberty informs our secular age.

Philosophical Works of Peter Chaadaev
Philosophical Works of Peter Chaadaev

Author: R.T. Mcnally

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 940113166X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Peter Chaadaev emerges from the pages of history as one of Russia's most provocative and influential thinkers. The purpose of this book is to present the reader with the fIrst English translation of most of his philosophical writings. During the first half of the nineteenth century Chaadaev incited a violent polemic concerning the historical significance of Russian culture. His ideas concerning Russia's real mission in the world still provoke controversy in the Soviet Union. In fact, no edition of most of his works has ever been published in the Soviet Union until the Gorbachev era. Our English translation with commentaries was done in the conviction that these writings should be made available to the English-reading public. The background material in this book is expository; we have not attempted to write a complete biographical study of Chaadaev, nor have we tried to offer an analysis of Chaadaev's philosophy. The point of view is simply that of two scholars who admire Chaadaev's insights into philosophy in general, and the philosophy of history, in particular; so the background material has ·been limited to a biographical sketch of Chaadaev and a brief explanation of his major ideas.

The Cultural Gradient
The Cultural Gradient

Author: Catherine Evtuhov

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780742520639

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Is there a sharp dividing line that separates Europe into 'East' and 'West'? This volume brings together prominent scholars from the United States, Canada, France, Poland, and Russia to examine the evolution of the concept of Europe in the two centuries between the French Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Inspired by the ideas of Martin Malia, the contributors take a flexible view of the 'cultural gradient'--the emergence, interaction, and reception of ideas across Europe. The essays address three dimensions of the gradient--the history of ideas, regimes and political practices, and the contemporary political and intellectual scene. In exploring the movement of ideas throughout Europe, The Cultural Gradient brings a new historical perspective to the field of European studies.

The Public Image of Eastern Orthodoxy
The Public Image of Eastern Orthodoxy

Author: Heather L. Bailey

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2020-06-15

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1501749536

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Focusing on the period between the revolutions of 1848-1849 and the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), The Public Image of Eastern Orthodoxy explores the circumstances under which westerners, concerned about the fate of the papacy, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, and Russian imperial power, began to conflate the Russian Orthodox Church with the state and to portray the Church as the political tool of despotic tsars. As Heather L. Bailey demonstrates, in response to this reductionist view, Russian Orthodox publicists launched a public relations campaign in the West, especially in France, in the 1850s and 1860s. The linchpin of their campaign was the building of the impressive Saint Alexander Nevsky Church in Paris, consecrated in 1861. Bailey posits that, as the embodiment of the belief that Russia had a great historical purpose inextricably tied to Orthodoxy, the Paris church both reflected and contributed to the rise of religious nationalism in Russia that followed the Crimean War. At the same time, the confrontation with westerners' negative ideas about the Eastern Church fueled a reformist spirit in Russia while contributing to a better understanding of Eastern Orthodoxy in the West.

Fyodor Dostoevsky—The Gathering Storm (1846–1847)
Fyodor Dostoevsky—The Gathering Storm (1846–1847)

Author: Thomas Gaiton Marullo

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2020-11-15

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1501751867

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This second book in a three-volume work on the young Fyodor Dostoevsky is a diary-portrait of his early years drawn from letters, memoirs, and criticism of the writer, as well as from the testimony and witness of family and friends, readers and reviewers, and observers and participants in his life. The result of an exhaustive search of published materials on Dostoevsky, this volume sheds crucial light on the many unexplored corners of Dostoevsky's life in the time between the success of his first novel, Poor Folk, and the failure of his next four works. Thomas Gaiton Marullo lets the original writers speak for themselves—the good and the bad, the truth and the lies—and adds extensive notes with correctives, counterarguments, and other pertinent information. Marullo looks closely at Dostoevsky's increasingly tense ties with Vissarion Belinsky, Nikolai Nekrasov, Ivan Turgenev, and other figures of the Russian literary world. He then turns to the individuals who afforded Dostoevsky security and peace amid the often negative reception from fellow writers and readers of his early fiction. Finally, Marullo shows us Dostoevsky's break with the Belinsky circle; his struggle to stay afloat emotionally and financially; and his determination to succeed as a writer while staying true to his vision, most notably, his insights into human psychology that would become a hallmark of his later fiction. This clear and comprehensive portrait of one of the world's greatest writers provides a window into his younger years in a way no other biography has to date.

The Russian Cosmists
The Russian Cosmists

Author: George M. Young

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-08-16

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0199892946

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The ideas of the Cosmists have in recent decades been rediscovered and embraced by many Russian intellectuals. Here, Young offers a dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the lives and ideas of the Russian Cosmists.

Correlating Sobornost
Correlating Sobornost

Author: Ashley John Moyse

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2016-01-01

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 1506401937

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The diaspora of scholars exiled from Russia in 1922 offered something vital for both Russian Orthodoxy and for ecumenical dialogue. Under new conditions, liberated from scholastic academic discourse, and living and writing in new languages, the scholars set out to reinterpret their traditions and to introduce Russian Orthodoxy to the West. Yet, relatively few have considered the works of these exiles, particularly insofar as they act as critical and constructive conversation partners. This project expands upon the relatively limited conversation between such thinkers with the most significant Protestant theologian of the last century, Karl Barth. Through the topic and in the spirit of sobornost, this project charters such conversation. The body of Russian theological scholarship guided by sobornost challenges Barth, helping us to draw out necessary criticism while leading us toward unexpected insight, and vice versa. Going forward, this volume demonstrates that there is space not only for disagreement and criticism, but also for constructive theological dialogue that generates novel and creative scholarship. Accordingly, this collection will not only illuminate but also stimulate interesting and important discussions for those engaged in the study of Karl Barth’s corpus, in the Orthodox tradition, and in the ecumenical discourse between East and West.