The Life and Thought of Lev Karsavin : Strength Made Perfect in Weakness...

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The Life and Thought of Lev Karsavin “Strength made perfect in weakness…” Contents List of Diagrams Preface ONE: The Making of a Metaphysical Historian 1. Prelude: Who was Lev Karsavin? 2. Early life (1882–1901) 3. Scholarly beginnings and first crisis (1902–1915) 4 The Foundations of Medieval Religiosity (1915–1916) A. The main theses B. Symbolist and Jamesian elements in FMR C. The academic reaction and the philosophical constructs underlying FMR 5. Karsavin, historical Christianity and TWO: A Theology Unfolds 1. The Petrograd years (1917–1922): “I have singed my wings . . .” 2. The roots of all-unity (1): Catholicism and Revelation of the Blessed Angela A. Catholicism (1918) B. The mystical system of the Blessed Angela 3. The roots of all-unity (2): Nicholas of Cusa A. Karsavin’s conception of Cusa’s place in medieval philosophy B. Cusa’s system in Karsavin’s interpretation C. Karsavin’s defense of Cusanism: beyond pantheism and theism 4. The early essays (1919–1922) A. “Saligia” B. “On Freedom” and “On Good and Evil” 5. Conclusion THREE: The Flames of Love and Knowledge 1. Noctes Petropolitanae: love and temptation A. “The love that moves the sun and other stars . . .” B. Being in Love: to die the death of God and rise again together C. Solar Eros versus lunar Agape: the unresolved struggle 2. Expulsion A. Anticipating the death of love B. Imprisonment and condemnation C. First years in exile (1922–1925) 3. On First Principles (1921–1925) A. Plotinus, the Cappadocians, and Descartes: rediscovering the “religious paradox” B. God as the differentiated Non-different Who re-undifferentiates C. The Logos as the finite infinity of refracted Tri-unity D. Being and hypostasis in man and God E. Natural and supernatural theandrification: creation and Incarnation F. The inclusion of imperfection in perfection: the first and second Adams 4. Conclusion FOUR: The Symphonic Face of Lev Karsavin: From History to Politics 1. Bread, butter and—metaphysics in exile (1924–1926) 2 The Philosophy of History (1921–1923) 3. Karsavin and the Eurasian movement (1926–1930) A. Human history: an evolving hierarchical-and-equal tree of personhood B. History as reality and redemptive science C. The uniqueness of civilizations: early “Euro-skepticism” D. Against progressivist and determinist theories of history E. Stages in the development of the historical person F. Giordano Bruno: the advantages of individualism G. De Maistre: between conservation and revolution H. History as a narrative about individuals I. The logical and moral relationship between individual and collective 3. Karsavin and the Eurasian movement (1926–1930) A. The Eurasian movement B. Karsavin’s path from the Russian idea to Eurasianism C. Karsavin’s Eurasian political theory 4. Conclusion FIVE: Personhood as the True Countenance of Being 1. The move to Lithuania 2. On Personhood (1928) A. The general context B. Basic concepts C. Individual personhood D. Symphonic personhood E. Perfect and imperfect personhood 3. The correspondence with Wetter (1940) A. The arguments of the correspondence B. Thoughts on the correspondence SIX: “Strength made perfect in weakness . . .” 1. From occupation to deportation (1940–1949) 2. Karsavin’s Lithuanian and camp works A. The History of European Culture (1930–1937) B. “On Time” C. “On the Immortality of the Soul” D. “On Perfection” E. “On the Lord’s Prayer” and “On Reflexology” 3. Coda: Karsavin’s years in Abez and Anatoly Vaneev (1950–1952) A. The heritage of “Vaneevan Karsavinism” B. Karsavin in Abez SEVEN: Epilogue: Karsavin Today 1. Prelude 2. Eastern and Western theology yesterday and today A. The Russian church and the East/West schism B. Bradshaw’s analysis of the Eastern consensus C. Karsavin and the Eastern consensus D. Karsavin and sophiology E. Karsavin and G. Florovsky on creation F. Karsavin and V. Lossky 3. Conclusion Bibliography 1. Works by Lev Karsavin 2. Works by Other Authors Abbreviations for Selected Works by Karsavin Appendix: Karsavin’s Poem on Death (1931) Index