The Bible Word in the works of religious thinkers (S. L. Frank, G. P. Fedotov, N. S. Arseniev)

Abstract

During the years of the revolution and the Civil War S. L. Frank, G. P. Fedotov, N. S. Arseniev were professors at Saratov University, but this is not all that unites them. In emigration these religious thinkers taught at various research-training, cultural-educational and spiritual centers of Europe, both Russian and foreign. The article reveals their personal experience of referring to the Biblical Word, exegesis of biblical texts based on Orthodox theology and biblical criticism. Frank wrote about the Word that created the world and the incarnate Word. In the book Collapse of the Idols (1923) he appeals to his reader with quotations from the New Testament, expressing the eternal and absolute. In the Holy Scriptures, he fi nds a match for his “basic intuition” of being. He bases his book Light in the Darkness (1949) on The Gospel of John, expressing the Christian attitude towards evil and criticizing all kinds of Utopianism. Frank’s idea that a man is destined to suff er to obtain salvation is also derived by him from the New Testament. Fedotov’s programmatic proposal on biblical studies is the article Orthodoxy and Historical Criticism (1932). He posed “the question of the limits of criticism in biblical exegesis”. Fedotov goes to the “pure basis of the Holy Tradition”, combining criticism of the historical school, “dogmatic loyalty to Orthodoxy” and “warm attitude” to Western Christianity. In the book Spiritual Poems (1935) the thinker explores folk beliefs in spiritual verses considering how biblical images (the Mother of God as “suff ering mother and intercessor,” Christ the Almighty) and eschatological prophecies transform in them.The spiritual experience of the apostles John and Paul, their mysticism is the central attraction of Arseniev’s exegetical interests. He reinterprets the pre-Christian concept of the Logos and comes to the Christian understanding of the Word of God: Logos of the Old Testament prepares the hearts of men for the incarnation of the Son of God.

Keywords

• the bible
• the word of god
• biblical studies
• biblical exegesis
• theology
• russian religious thinkers
• s. l. frank
• g. p. fedotov
• n. s. arseniev