Pavel Florensky
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (Russian: Павел Александрович Флоренский, January 21 N.S. 1882 - December 1937 by the other sources ) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher, mathematician and electrical engineer, sometimes compared by his followers to Leonardo da Vinci.
Biography
Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky was born to the family of a Railroad engineer in town Yevlakh currently western Azerbaijan on January 22 N.S. 1882. His father was from the family of Russian Orthodox priests and his mother was from Armenian nobility. After graduating from Tiflis gymnasium he enters Department of Mathematics of Moscow State University. In parallel he studied Philosophy.
After graduating from Moscow State University in 1904, Florensky refused to take teaching position at the University but instead decided to study theology at the Ecclesiastical Academy in Sergiyev Posad. Together with his fellow students Ern, Svenitsky and Brikhnichev he created society Union of Christian Struggle (Союз Христинской Борьбы) aiming to revolutionary rebuild the society according to ideas of Vladimir Solovyov. He was arrested for membership in this society in 1906. Later he lost his interest in the Radical Christianity.
During his study at the Ecclesiastical Academy he interested in Philosophy, Religion, Art, Folklore. He became a prominent member of the Russian Symbolism movement, started his friendship with Andrei Bely, publishes in 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.
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). Florensky is perhaps the first modern writer to explore the so-called same-sex unions, which, for him, are not sexual in nature. 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 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, Electrodynamics. Between 1911 and 1917 he was the chief editor of the most authoritative Orthodox Theologian publication of that time Bogoslovskiy Vestnik. He was also a spiritual teacher of the controversial Russian writer Vasily Rozanov urging him to conciliate with the Orthodox Church.
After the October Revolution he formulated his position as: Philosophical and scientific world outlook developed by me contradicts with the vulgar interpretation of the communism... but that does not prevent me to honestly work on the state service. After closing down by bolsheviks the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra (1918) and Sergievo-Posad Church (1921), where he was the priest, he moved to Moscow to work on State Plan for Electrification of Russia (ГОЭЛРО) under the recommendation of Leon Trotsky who strongly believed into the Florensky's ability to help the government to electrificate Russia. According to contemporaries Florensky in full robes of an Orthodox Priest working as one of the leaders of a Government department was an astonishing view.
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 Historical Commission on Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra and published his works on the Ancient Russian Art. He was also rumored to be the main organizer of the plot to save the relics of St. Sergii Radonezhsky that was ordered to be destroyed by the government.
In the second half of the 20ies he mostly worked on physics and electrodynamics, publishing his main "hard science" work Imaginary numbers in Geometry devoted to the geometrical interpretation of the 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.
In 1928 Florensky was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod. After intercession by Ekaterina Peshkova (wife of Maxim Gorky), Florensky was returned to Moscow. In 1933 he was arrested again and sentenced to ten years in Labor Camps by the infamous article fifty eight of Stalin's criminal code (clauses ten and eleven - agitation against Soviet system and publishing agitation materials against Soviet system). The published agitation materials were the monograph about the theory of relativity.
He served at Baikal Amur Mainline camp, since 1934 on Solovki, there he conducted research into producing iodine and agar out of the local seaweed. In 1937 he was transferred to Saint Petersburg 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 head was indeed saved and in 1946 then the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra was opened again the relics of St. Sergii became fashionable again, the head was returned to Lavra by Pavel Golubtsov, later known as archbishop Sergiy).
The official Soviet information stated that Florensky died December 8 1943 somewhere in Siberia, but study of the NKVD archives after disbanding of Soviet Union have shown that the information was 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 north-east to Saint Petersburg and was buried in a secret grave in Koirangakangas near Toksovo together with 30000 others executed by NKVD at the same time.
In 1981 Nicholas Pavel Florensky was canonised as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia as a martyr.
External links
- Site devoted to Florensky - in Russian
- Article about his last days and identification of his remains - in English
- biography - in Russian
- Church biography] -in Russian Florensky]]