Pavel
Florensky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (also P.A.
Florenskiĭ, Florenskii, Florenskij, Russian:
Па́вел Алекса́ндрович Флоре́нский ) (January 21
[O.S. January 9] 1882 - December 1937) was a
Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher,
mathematician, electrical engineer, inventor and
Neomartyr sometimes compared by his followers to
Leonardo da Vinci.
Early life
Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky was born on
January 21, 1882, into a family of a railroad
engineer (Aleksandr Florensky) in the town of
Yevlakh in western Azerbaijan. His father came
from a family of Russian Orthodox priests while
his mother Olga (Salomia) Saparova (Saparashvili)
was of the Armenian nobility.
After
graduating from Tbilisi gymnasium in 1899
Florensky entered the department of mathematics
of Moscow State University and simultaneously
studied philosophy. During this period the young
Florensky, who had no religious upbringing,
began taking an interest studies beyond, "the
limitations of physical knowledge..." In 1904 he
graduated from Moscow State University and
refused to accept a teaching position at the
University: instead, he proceeded to study
theology at the Ecclesiastical Academy in
Sergiyev Posad. During his theological study he
first came into contact with who would become
his spiritual father and mentor, Elder Isidore
on a visit to Gethsemane Hermitage. Together
with his fellow students Ern, Svenitsky and
Brikhnichev he founded a society, the Christian
Struggle Union (Союз Христиaнской Борьбы), with
the revolutionary aim of rebuilding Russian
society according to the principles of Vladimir
Solovyov. Subsequently he was arrested for
membership in this society in 1906: however, he
later lost his interest in the Radical
Christianity movement.
Philosophers Pavel Florensky and Sergei
Bulgakov, a painting by Mikhail Nesterov (1917)
Intellectual interests
During his studies at the Ecclesiastical
Academy, Florensky's interests included
philosophy, religion, art and folklore. He
became a prominent member of the Russian
Symbolism movement, started his friendship with
Andrei Bely and published works in the magazines
New Way (Новый Путь) and Libra (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 1924 but most of it was
finished at the time of his graduation from the
academy in 1908.
According to
Princeton University Press: "The book is a
series of twelve letters to a "brother" or
"friend," who may be understood symbolically as
Christ. Central to Florensky's work is an
exploration of the various meanings of Christian
love, which is viewed as a combination of philia
(friendship) and agape (universal love). He
describes the ancient Christian rites of the
adelphopoiesis (brother making), joining male
friends in chaste bonds of love. In addition,
Florensky is one of the first thinkers in the
twentieth century to develop the idea of the
Divine Sophia, who has become one of the central
concerns of feminist theologians."
After
graduating from the academy, he taught
philosophy there and lived at Troitse-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 and electrodynamics. 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 writer Vasily Rozanov,
urging him to reconcile with the Orthodox
Church.
Period of
Communist rule in Russia
After the October Revolution he formulated
his position as: I am of a Philosophical and
scientific world outlook developed by me, which
contradicts the vulgar interpretation of
communism... but that does not prevent me to
honestly work for the state service. After the
closing down, by the Bolsheviks, of the
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (1918) and the
Sergievo-Posad Church (1921), where he was the
priest, he moved to Moscow to work on the State
Plan for Electrification of Russia. (ГОЭЛРО)
Under the recommendation of Leon Trotsky who
strongly believed in Florensky's ability to help
the government to electrify 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 large monograph on dielectrics, as
well as his The Pillar and Ground of the Truth:
an Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters.
He also worked simultaneously as the Scientific
Secretary of the Historical Commission on
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra and published his works
on ancient Russian art. He was also rumoured to
be the main organizer of the plot to save the
relics 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, publishing his main hard
science work Imaginary numbers in Geometry («Мнимости
в геометрии. Расширение области двухмерных
образов геометрии») devoted to the geometrical
interpretation of Albert Einstein's theory 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.
1928-1937:
Exile, imprisonment, death
In 1928, Florensky was exiled to Nizhny
Novgorod. After the intercession of Ekaterina
Peshkova (wife of Maxim Gorky), Florensky was
allowed to return to Moscow. In 1933 he was
arrested again and sentenced to ten years in the
Labor Camps by the infamous Article 58 of
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.
He served at
the Baikal Amur Mainline camp, until 1934 when
he was moved to Solovki, there he conducted
research into producing iodine and agar out of
the local seaweed. In 1937 he was transferred to
Saint Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) where
he was sentenced by an extrajudicial NKVD troika
to execution. 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.
Official Soviet
information stated that Florensky died December
8, 1943 somewhere in Siberia, but a study of the
NKVD archives after the dissolution of the
Soviet Union have shown that information to be
false. Florensky was shot immediately after the
NKVD troika session in December 1937. Most
probably he was executed at the Rzhevsky
Artillery Range, near Toksovo, which is located
about twenty kilometers northeast of Saint
Petersburg and was buried in a secret grave in
Koirangakangas near Toksovo together with 30,000
others who were executed by NKVD at the same
time.
