SOPHIAN “HOMOUSIA” OF PAVEL FLORENSKY

Abstract

The analysis of the book Th e Pillar and Assertion of the Truth (1914) and the sophiological doctrine presented in the article and related to the approaches of certain Russian sophiologists shows the general problematic character of the attempts of Orthodox substantiation of the ideas of Sophia and at the same time the originality of Pavel Florensky’s position. T e thinker could not overcome sophiological aporia and the complex of religiousmodernistic ideology; however Florensky proved the conception of Sophianess universe, formalistic in its essence, but symbolic in appearance, based on the author’s theory of antinomic cognition and the misinterpreted principle of trinity. As a result, Sophia turned out to be isomorphic to Holy Trinity and simultaneously to the creative world. Th e paradigm of Florensky’s thinking, apart from its gnostic basis, shows a certain deviation to the direction of post-modernist (in the broader sense) consciousness, which is why the philosopher is in demand in modern human environment.

Keywords

• sophiology
• orthodoxy
• modernism
• antinomy
• consubstantiality
• onthology
• formalism
• post-modernism