Psychoanalysis and Christian Spirituality: The Crisis of Religiosity in the Cultural Criticism of Boris Vysheslavtsev

The article puts forward the thesis about the need to actualize the heritage of Russian religious thought in the modern intellectual culture of Russia. The question of reinterpretation of philosophical projects of the Silver Age in cultural and philosophical discourse on secularism and post-secularism and axiological structure of culture is raised. The article considers the specifics of B.P. Vysheslavtsev’s cultural-critical approach formulated by the Russian thinker in the process of comprehending the results of secularization in Russia and Europe contemporary to him, within the framework of which he problematized the themes of the crisis of religious consciousness and the spiritual integrity of human existence. Central attention is paid to the philosopher’s attempt to integrate the ideas and concepts of psychoanalysis into his religious-philosophical concept of culture, based on the traditions of Eastern Christian theology and Russian religious metaphysics. The originality of the concept presented by Vysheslavtsev is revealed in comparison with other, contemporary projects of synthesizing Russian religious thought with philosophical currents of late modernity. The subject of the study is the basic concepts that Vysheslavtsev borrows from the works of S. Freud and C.G. Jung, as well as the sacred theological texts that Vysheslavtsev singled out as the most appropriate initial bases for integrating the provisions of the psychoanalytical school into Orthodox-coloured philosophy of culture and ethics. It is concluded that the attempt to find a way of synthesis and dialogue between concepts that are ideologically opposing in many of their provisions is philosophically and culturologically significant, although it does not achieve the desired goal of transforming psychoanalysis with faith in a transcendent God. The main result is the search for interaction and the possibility of an exchange of ideas between modern philosophy and theology as an endeavor to renew the language of intellectual communication in revealing the truth of Christianity and its revival in the spiritual experience of man in modern culture.

1. Zhukova O.A. Tvorchestvo i religioznost’ v russkoi kul’ture. Filosofskie issledovaniya [Creativity and Religiosity in Russian Culture. Philosophical Research]. Moscow, Soglasie Publ., 2022, 594 p.

2. Antonov K.M. Eternal and New in the Interpretation of Christianity in Russian Religious Thought: Problem Statement, Bog v russkoi mysli, kul’ture, istorii: materialy Ezhegodnoi mezhdistsiplinarnoi nauchnoi konferentsii Obshchetserkovnoi aspirantury i doktorantury im. sv. ravnoapostol’nykh Kirilla i Mefodiya “Tserkov’ i vremya” [The Lord in Russian Thought, Culture, and History: Proceedings of the Annual Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference of the St. Cyril and Methodius All-Church Postgraduate School and Doctoral School “Church and Time”]. Moscow, OTSAD im. Sv. Ravnoapostol’nykh Kirilla i Mefodiya Publ., 2024, pp. 61—72 (in Russ.).

3. Kondratyev V.Yu. The Anthropological Concept B.P. Vysheslavtsev: The Attempted Synthesis of Philosophy, Religion and Science, Sovremennye nauchnye issledovaniya i innovatsii [Modern Scientific Researches and Innovations], 2016, no. 11. Available at: https://web.snauka.ru/issues/2016/11/74272 (accessed 12.12.2024) (in Russ.).

4. Vysheslavtsev B.P. Vechnoe v russkoi filosofii [Eternal in Russian Philosophy]. Paris, YMCA Press Publ., 1955, 296 p.

5. Parakhnevich E.V. Axiological Sphere of the Journal ‘Put’: Cultural Values of the Russian Emigrants, Teoriya i praktika obshchestvennogo razvitiya [Theory and Practice of Social Development], 2013, no. 7, pp. 150—152 (in Russ.).

6. Regulskaya D.A. Boris Vysheslavtsev as a Critic of Industrial Culture: in Search of a New Social and Anthropological Ideal, Istoriya filosofii [History of Philosophy], 2022, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 96—107. DOI: 10.21146/2074-5869-2022-27-1-96-107 (in Russ.).

7. Habermas J., Ratzinger J. (Benedict XVI). The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion. Moscow, Bibleisko-Bogoslovskii Institut Sv. Apostola Andreya Publ., 2006, 112 p. (in Russ.).

8. Zolotukhin V.V. Immanuel Hermann Fichte’s Philosophical Theology as a Forgotten Page of the German Idealism, Voprosy Filosofii, 2015, no. 6, pp. 171—178 (in Russ.).

9. Zhukova O.A. Religious Interpretation of Freedom in Russian Philosophy of Culture and Politics, Kul’tura kul’tury [Culture of Culture], 2016, no. 3 (11). Available at: http://cult-cult.ru/religious-interpretation-of-freedom-in-russian-philosophy-of-culture-and-politic/ (accessed 12.12.2024) (in Russ.).

10. Antonov K.M. The Reception of Classical Psychoanalysis in the Russian Religious Thought and the Modern Psychoanalytic Theories of Religion, Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriya I: Bogoslovie. Filosofiya [St. Tikhon’s University Review. Theology. Philosophy], 2014, no. 5 (55), pp. 47—67 (in Russ.).

11. Vysheslavtsev B.P. Ehtika preobrazhennogo ehrosa: problemy zakona i blagodati [The Ethics of Transformed Eros: Problems of Law and Grace]. Paris, YMCA Press Publ., 1931, 273 p.

12. Dronov M., archpriest. Orthodox Asceticism and Psychoanalysis, Al’fa i Omega. Uchenye zapiski Obshchestva dlya rasprostraneniya Svyashchennogo pisaniya v Rossii [Alpha and Omega. Scholarly Notes of the Society for the Dissemination of the Holy Scriptures in Russia.], 1998, no. 2 (16), pp. 248—275 (in Russ.).

13. Lossky N.O. Vysheslavtsev. The Ethics of Transformed Eros, Novyi Grad, 1932, no. 3, pp. 89—91 (in Russ.).

14. Zherebin A.I. Second Trance. To the History of Jungianism in Russia, Voprosy Filosofii, 2017, no. 10, pp. 111—122 (in Russ.).

15. Crone A.L. Eros and Creativity in Russian Religious Renewal: The Philosophers and the Freudians. Boston, Leiden Publ., 2010, 264 p.

16. Aleshin A.I. From the Editor, Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev. Moscow, ROSSPEHN Publ., 2013, pp. 5—8 (in Russ.).

17. Vysheslavtsev B.P. Russian National Character, Voprosy Filosofii, 1995, no. 6, pp. 112—114.

18. Vysheslavtsev B.P. Religious and Ascetic Meaning of Neurosis, Put’, 1926, no. 5, pp 128—130 (in Russ.).

19. Freud S. Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics. Moscow, Petrograd, Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel’stvo, 171 p. (in Russ.).

20. Freud S. The Future of an Illusion, Voprosy Filosofii, 1988, no. 8, pp. 126—161 (in Russ.).

21. Jung C.G. Answer to Job. Moscow, Kanon+ Publ., 2014, 352 p. (in Russ.).

22. Dynin B.S. Between an Apostle and a Doctor, Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev. Moscow, ROSSPEHN Publ., 2013, pp. 159—199 (in Russ.).

23. Balanovsky V.V. The Role of Mass Psychology of B.P. Vysheslavtsev in Development of Analytical Psychology, Filosofskaya mysl’ [Philosophical Thought], 2020, no. 5, pp. 1—13. DOI: 10.25136/2409-8728.2020.5.32780 (in Russ.).

24. Dionysius the Areopagite (Pseudo). On the Divine Names, Dionisii Areopagit. Sochineniya. Maksim Ispovednik. Tolkovaniya [Dionysius the Areopagite. Works. Maximus the Confessor. Interpretations]. St. Petersburg, Alteiya Publ., 2002, pp. 207—567 (in Russ.).

25. Aquino F.D. Maximus the Confessor, The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology. Oxford, Oxford University Press Publ., 2017, pp. 369—381. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199662241.013.18.

26. Justin Martyr. The Dialogue with Trypho, Pamyatniki drevnei khristianskoi pis’mennosti v russkom perevode: t. 1—7 [Monuments of Ancient Christian Literature in Russian Translation: volumes 1—7]. Moscow, Tipografiya Katkova i Ko. Publ., 1862, vol. 3, pp. 141—378 (in Russ.).

27. John Chrysostom. Against the Jews, Tvoreniya svyatogo ottsa nashego Ioanna Zlatousta, arkhiepiskopa Konstantinopol’skogo, v russkom perevode: t. 1—12 [The Works of Our Holy Father John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, in Russian Translation: volumes 1—12]. St. Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburgskaya Dukhovnaya Akademiya Publ., 1898, vol. 1, book 2, pp. 635—749 (in Russ.).

28. Drewermann E. Strukturen des Bösen: Die Jahwistische Urgeschichte in Exegetischer/Psychoanalytischer/Philosophischer: 3 Bde. Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich, Ferdinand Schöningh Publ., 1988, vol. 2: Die Jahwistische Urgeschichte in Psychoanalytischer Sicht, 680 p.

29. Maximi Confessoris S.P.N. Capita Theologica et Oeconomica. Cent V, Patrologia Graeca. Paris, J.P. Migne’s Imprimerie Catholique Publ., 1863, vol. 90, pp. 1383—1387.