On the question of life, death and immortality in the works of L. P. Karsavin and John (Maksimovic) of Shangha
Abstract
The author of the article provides an interpreta-tion of L. P. Karsavin’s views on the questions of life, death and immortality. These views are compared with those of Slavophils who de-scribed the true life of man as such existence which implies self-sacrifice. Some ideas of N. F. Fedorov, V. V. Rozanov, P. A. Florensky, S. N. Bulgakov, and D. S. Merezhkovsky are also in focus as they help to better understand Karsavin’s attitude to life and death. It is shown that Karsavin’s views fit organically into the tradition of Russian religious philosophy. The author proves that the philosopher had no clear conception of death, and that his understanding of the end of a human life as a transfiguration is only one of the “tints” in the diverse palette of his creative work, along with the statements that immortality is like “eternal dying”, and evil is rather a “reluctance to die”, etc. The views of Karsavin are compared with those of John Maksimovich of Shanghai. It is concluded that Karsavin’s idea of death considerably differs from the traditional patristic one and in some aspects is closer to the Buddhist position which involves Nothing as the absolute. It is also con-cluded that in the Russian religious philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries the theme of death is inextricably linked with reflections on life and love, and in the works of most emigrant Russian philosophers the motive of death be-comes apocalyptic.
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