The Personalistic Thought in Russian Philosophy of Religion (Translated by Jan Kłos)

Abstract

The idea of personalism is present in the pre-Soviet Russian philosophical and theological thought. There were eminent philosophers who played meaningful roles in its development. The question about the relationship between God and man was important for them, and it is from this perspective that they treated man’s relationship to the whole reality created by God, and the interpersonal relationship. The most important question here remained the problem of man himself, who he is, what his place is among other beings, what tasks there are for him, and where he tends. In this knowledge of his own and the world’s reality the human person was a separate mystery. In his considerations each Russian thinker presented his own vision of the human person, creating thereby the Russian personalistic direction, or even the Russian school of personalism. The following thinkers played a great role here: Berdiaev, Shestov, Karsavin, Losski, and others.