Alexei Khomiakov (1804–1860), a great Russian thinker, one of the founders of the Slavophile school of thought, nowadays might be seen as one of the precursors of critical thought on the dangers of modern political ideas. The pathologies that Khomiakov attributes to Catholicism and Protestantism – authoritarianism, individualism, and fragmentation – are today the fundamental characteristics of modern states, of the societies in which we live, and to a large extent, of the alternatives that are brought forth in an attempt to counter them. Khomiakov's works, therefore, might help us take on the challenge of rescuing Christian thought from modern colonisation and offer a true alternative, a space for love and truth, the living experience of the church. Alexei Khomiakov serves as a step on the path toward recovering the church's reflection on its own identity as sobornost', the community that is the living body of Christ, and can be the next step forward toward recovering the capacity for thought from within the church.

Contributors

Introduction: Alexei Khomiakov: Thinking from Inside the Church
     Artur Mrówczynski-Van Allen, Teresa Obolevitch, and Pawel Rojek

Part I: Ideas
1. Looking for Sobornost': Khomiakov's Ecclesiology as an Alternative to the Schmitt-Peterson Debate
     Artur Mrówczynski-Van Allen
2. Faith and Science in the Thought of Khomiakov
     Teresa Obolevitch
3. Khomiakov's Church and Pope Francis's Church: The Future Fate of the Idea of Conciliarity
     Marek Kita
4. Khomiakov, Sacrifice, and the Dialogic Roots of Russian Kenosis
     Stephanie Solywoda
5. Sobornost' as a Linguistic, and Therefore Religious, Trap
     Elena Tverdislova
6. Khomiakov's Idea of Sobornost' as a Regulatory Ideal of Intercultural Communication
     Lada Shipovalova and Yulia Shaposhnikova

Part II: Contexts
7. Alexei Khomiakov and Blaise Pascal
     Boris Tarasov
8. Khomiakov's Sobornost' and Naturphilosophie: A Revolutionary Narrative of History
     Jennie D. Wojtusik
9. Alexei Khomiakov and Sergey Uvarov: "Official Nationality" or Nationality?
     Dmitrii Badalian

Part III: Influences
10. Slavophile Philosophy of History: From Alexei Khomiakov to Vladimir Lamansky
     Alexei Malinov
11. The Echoes of Alexei Khomiakov's Theological Views in the Literary Works of Nikolai Leskov
     Marta Lukaszewicz
12. A Possible Filiation between Alexei Khomiakov and Lev Karsavin
     Françoise Lesourd
13. Alexei Khomiakov, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Ladislav Hanus: Three Points of View on Faith and Church in Human Life
     Zlatica Plašienková, Peter Rusnák, and Lucio Florio
14. Pitirim A. Sorokin: A Successor to the Slavophiles
     Frederick Matern
15. "Our Slavic Pope": The Mission of Slavs according to John Paul II
     Pawel Rojek

• Introduction: Alexei Khomiakov: Thinking from Inside the Church (PDF, 77 KB)
• Chapter 2: Faith and Science in the Thought of Khomiakov (PDF, 117 KB)
• Chapter 13: Alexei Khomiakov, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Ladislav Hanus (PDF, 131 KB)

Artur Mrówczynski-Van Allen is Professor at the International Center for the Study of the Christian Orient and Instituto de Filosofía 'Edith Stein', Granada, Spain. He is the author of Between the Icon and the Idol: The Human Person and the Modern State in Russian Literature and Thought (Cascade, 2013).

Teresa Obolevitch is Professor at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland. Recently she published Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought (2019).

Pawel Rojek is Assistant Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

• List of Contributors (PDF, 41 KB)