Semyon Ludvigovich Frank (1877-1950) wrote major works on epistemology, ontology, philosophy of religion, and social philosophy. As a youthful Marxist, he was arrested and banned from major Russian cities for his radical activities. Becoming dissatisfied with Marxism, he soon turned to idealism and then to religious philosophy. Professor of Philosophy at Moscow University until 1922, when he was expelled to the West, Frank worked in exile until his death in London in 1950.
"The Spiritual Foundations of Society" is Frank s attempt to examine society as a type of spiritual being, to develop...

In this book Sergey Horujy undertakes a novel comparative analysis of Foucault's theory of practices of the self and the Eastern Orthodox ascetical tradition of Hesychasm, revealing great affinity between these two radical -subject-less- approaches to anthropology. As he facilitates the dialogue between the two, he offers both an original treatment of ascetical and mystical practices and an up-to-date interpretation of Foucault that goes against the grain of mainstream scholarship.
In the second half of the book Horujy transitions from the dialogue with Foucault to his own work of...

The present volume represents the most substantial theological contribution in Pavel Florensky's great multi-volume "anthropidicy," At the Watersheds of Thought: The Elements of a Concrete Metaphysics. Florensky argues that his epoch (the early 20th century) bore witness to a spiritual shift in the direction of a revitalized Christian world-understanding. In modern times, the Renaissance world-understanding, which is anti-Christian in nature and whose treasure lies in man, had replaced the Medieval world-understanding, which is Christian in nature and whose treasure lies in God. But the...

This volume contains several late works of Vladimir Solovyov, representing his final speculations about matters crucial to the destiny of humanity and of the world. As Solovyov's life was coming to an end at the close of the 19th century, his thoughts were turned toward three things: the end of the world (the Antichrist), the beauty and wisdom of the world (Sophia), and the nature of God. A completely new translation of the famous "Short Tale About the Antichrist" is presented here, along with revised versions of "At the Dawn of Mist-Shrouded Youth," "Three Meetings," and "The Concept of...

The great Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev set for himself the task of revealing to the western world the distinctive elements of Russian philosophy: its existential nature, eschatologism, religious anarchism, and preoccupation with the idea of Divine Humanity. In the present collection of essays (the first volume of Berdyaev's essays ever to appear in English translation), he attempts to define "the new religious consciousness" as it emerged in Russia in the first decade of the 20th century. Berdyaev, like Merezhkovsky and Blok (among others), believed that the dawn of the new century...

Andrei Bely was the greatest Russian writer of the twentieth century. Chiefly known outside of Russia as a novelist (his Petersburg is the best modern Russian novel), he was also a leading symbolist poet and profound philosophical critic. Bely was also a mystic who had an unsurpassed ability to express his visions in writing, and he often did so in the form of lyrical essays, a selection of which is offered here. Many of these essays were written as the twentieth century stood at the threshold of a new epoch. For Bely, a new religious consciousness was emerging, rooted in Vladimir Solovyov's...