L. P. Karsavin’s concept of true death and the “synthetic” image of Jesus Christ in F. M. Dostoevsky’s works
Abstract
The article provides a thorough analysis of the specific way L. Karsavin interpreted the all-unity conception. The mundane world was regarded by him as an imperfect state of All-Unity in which the process of disintegration of the whole into a number of elements and the counter process of integration are separated, temporary and “stiff” in an interim position which determines the spatial form of the world. Human personality was claimed by Karsavin to be the only entity able to continue and complete the process of being separation in order to let being achieve the form of absolute all-unity. This is believed to be the genuine death of a personality. Jesus Christ as a perfect personality died this way and then resurrected from the dead as an “ecumenical”, “synthetic” personality whose body is all the spatial world. The Russian writer F. Dostoevsky was the first to propose such an understanding of death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to the authors, similar ideas can be found in the works of L. Tolstoy and V. Solovyov. It is concluded that Karsavin continued this tendency within the Russian all-unity philosophy.
References
Dostoevsky, F.M. (1980), Zapiski publitsisticheskogo i literaturno-kriticheskogo haraktera iz zapisnyh knizhek i tetradey 1860–1865 gg. [The notes of journalistic and literary-critical character from the notebooks and writing books of 1860–1865], in Dostoevsky, F.M. Polnoe sobranie sochinneniy v 30 t. [Complete works in 30 vol.], vol. 20, Nauka, Leningrad, USSR, pp. 152–205.
Evlampiev, I.I. (2017), O filosofskikh osnovaniyakh religioznykh vozzreniy F. Dostoevskogo i L. Tolstogo [On the philosophical foundations of F. Dostowvsky’s and L. Tolstoy’s religious views], in Dostoevskiy i mirovaya kul'tura. Al'manah № 35 [Dostoevsky and the world literature. Almanac No. 35], Serebryanyy vek, St. Petersburg, Russia, pp. 298–312.
Evlampiev, I.I. (2017), Russkaya filosofiya v evropeyskom kontekste [Russian philosophy in the European context], RChHA Publishing House, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Karsavin, L.P. (1994), O dobre i zle [On good and evil], in Karsavin, L.P. Malye sochineniya [Little works], Aletheia, St. Petersburg, Russia, pp. 250–284.
Karsavin, L.P. (1994) Saligia, ili Ves'ma kratkoe i dushepoleznoe razmyshlenie o Boge, mire, cheloveke, zle i semi smertnykh grekhakh [Saligia, or a very short and useful for soul reflection concerning God, the world, man, evil and seven deadly sins], in Karsavin, L.P. Malye sochineniya [Little works], Aletheia, St. Petersburg, Russia, pp. 24–57.
Karsavin, L.P. (1992), O lichnosti [On personality], Renessans, Moscow, Russia, pp. 3–232.
Karsavin, L.P. (1993), O tak nazyvaemom “bessmertii dushi” [On so called “immortality of soul”], in Karsavin, L.P. Sochineniya [Works], Raritet, Moscow, Russia, pp. 478–479.
Karsavin, L.P. (1995), O nachalah [On the foundations], YMCA-Press, St. Pe¬ters-burg, Russia.
Nicolaus Cusanus, (1980), Ob uchenom neznanii [On learned ignorance], in Nico-laus Cusanus, Sochineniya v 2 t. [Works in 2 vol.], vol. 1, Mysl', Moscow, USSR, pp. 47–184.
Solovyov, V.S. (1988), Opravdanie dobra [The justification of the good], in Solovyov, V.S., Sochineniya v 2 t. [Works in 2 vol.], vol. 1, Mysl', Moscow, USSR, pp. 47–580.
Solovyov, V.S. (1988), Ideya chelovechestva u Avgusta Konta [The idea of humanity by August Compt], in Solovyov, V.S., Sochineniya v 2 t. [Works in 2 vol.], vol. 1, Mysl', Moscow, USSR, pp. 562–581.
Tolstoy, L.N. (1957), V chem moya vera? [What is my faith?], in Tolstoy, L.N. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy v 90 t. [Complete works in 90 vol.], vol. 23, Khudozhestvennaya literatura, Moscow, USSR, pp. 304–465.
Tolstoy, L.N. (1936), O zhizni [On life], in Tolstoy, L.N. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy v 90 t. [Complete works in 90 vol.], vol. 26, Khudozhestvennaya literatura, Moscow, USSR, pp. 313–442.
Tolstoy, L.N. (1953), Dnevniki i zapisnye knizhki 1895–1899 gg. [Diaries and notebooks of 1895–1899], Tolstoy, L.N. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy v 90 t. [Complete works in 90 vol.], vol. 53, Khudozhestvennaya literatura, Moscow, USSR, pp. 3–38.
