Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2021)
“The truth is in the universal nature”. The correspondence between S. L. Frank and fr. Clement Lialine (1937–1948)
Abstract
This article makes public the archive correspondence between S. L. Frank and Father Clement Lialine, a monk from the Catholic monastery Amay-Chevetogne. The preface to the publication traces the history of S. L. Frank’s relations with Clement Lialine which is refl ected in their correspondence of 1937–1948. The topics discussed in the letters concern the involvement of S. L. Frank in his cooperation with the journal Irénikon, his unrealised plans of lecture trips to Belgium, as well as the edition of English anthology of V.S. Soloviev’s works by S. L. Frank’s and his reasearch into the issue of the supposed conversion of V. S. Soloviev to Catholicism. Of particular interest is S. L. Frank’s and Fr. Clement’s position of Christian universalism expressed in the letters, i. e. the desire to consider both Orthodoxy and Catholicism not as two diff erent denominations, but as two cultural-historical branches of the “universal” church, which should stand together in “brotherhood”. Also of interest is response from the Greek Catholic priest Cyril Korolevsky (received to the inquiry of Lialine) concerning the canon regulations of joining the Catholic Church by the Orthodox. The foreword also shows the role of the Benedictine monastery of Amay-Chevetogne and the journal Irénikon as an ecumenical centre of Catholicism, including the links of the journal with Russian émigré philosophers. We also present a bibliography of the articles and reviews of S. L. Frank’s works printed in the journal Irénikon. The published correspondence allows one to supplement the knowledge about the church-related position of S. L. Frank, his attitude to Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism as the three “fraternal” branches of the “united” Christian faith, as well as the specifi c participation of Russian philosophers in the development of ecumenical dialogue in the mid- 20th century.
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