Epistemology or Mystagogue? Concept of living religion in works by Pavel Florensky

Living religious experience, rooted in prereflective childhood encounters, is the only legitimate way to comprehend dogma, according to Pavel Florensky's The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. This experience later becomes reflected in scientific, personal, and religious life, forming the concept of "coexistence of two worlds" as reality's basis. The invisible center of this system is the sacrament, with visible worship and symbols carrying its energy. Florensky's epistemology, drawing on the Corpus Areopagiticum and Bonaventure, represents a mystagogue under a scientistic cover—a symbolic spiritual ascent to Truth where symbols, including "man Paul," become unnecessary once the aim is achieved. Religious experience, whose essence is life, should ground a new type of religiosity, currently only a project.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The initial lines of The Pillar and Ground of the Truth (Rus. Столп и утверждение Истины) in the renowned defi nition of “living religious experience as the only legitimate means of comprehending the dogma” prescribe that philosophical refl ection and theological speculation should always proceed following living life. The latter is considered in the person-oriented aspect as a spiritual autobiography that includes prerefl exive experience from childhood. Later, this experience comes to be refl ected in the scientifi c, personal and religious experience of adult life and becomes an organic element of creative works of Florensky, including the concept of двоемирие (literally “coexistence of two worlds”) as the basis of reality. The invisible centre of this system is the sacrament, and the visible layers of worship and symbols that exist in the everyday world point at it. Symbol is a reality of specifi c type; it carries the energy (ºνέργεια) of the sacrament. Epistemology of Florensky’s religious experience is focused on tradition and dates back to the Corpus Areopagiticum and Bonaventure, and rather represents a Mystagogue under a scientistic cover. It is a specifi c mystical heuristic, symbolic spiritual ascent to the Truth, where the symbols pointing at it, including “man Paul”, are not self-suffi cient and become unnecessary once the aim has been achieved. In this sense, it is very important that religious experience that possesses “life” as its essence should become the basis for religiosity of the new type, which for the time being is conceived only as a project.