On Spiritual Unity: A Slavophile Reader

by Ivan Kireyevsky, Aleksey Khomyakov, Boris Jakim (Translator, editor)

This volume brings together the religious and philosophical writings of the founders of Russian religious philosophy, Aleksei Khomiakov and Ivan Kireevsky. Both began their intellectual careers in the literary world of the 1820s. The texts collected here make the philosophical concepts of Sobornost (community, universality, wholeness, ecumenicity) and integral knowledge, available to western readers. Based on the primacy of the heart, the spiritual wholeness of the human being and the cognitive will, integral knowing moves beyond rationality to union with the object of knowledge in knowing. This book provides an introduction to Russian religious philosophy, and a profound, meditative text for anyone concerned with human and spiritual unity. Also included are two responses to Slavophile ideas by the prominent Russian philosophers Pavel Florensky and Nikolai Berdiaev.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Religion

365 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Ivan Vasilyevich Kireyevsky (Russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич Кире́евский) was a Russian literary critic and philosopher who, together with Aleksey Khomyakov, is credited as a co-founder of the Slavophile movement.

Reviews

[Mina Herz]

Canon value: essential background for 19th-century Russian religious and civilizational thought. Not broad world canon, but crucial for understanding the Russian anti-Western/intellectual-spiritual current behind Dostoevsky, Solovyov, Berdyaev, Orthodox sobornost, anti-rationalism, and the Russian argument against atomised Western individualism.

Style: religious-philosophical polemic, not literature. Expect essays, theological nationalism, metaphysical anthropology, church/community language, and attacks on Western rational fragmentation. This is not “beautiful Russian prose” territory; it is doctrinal and civilizational architecture.

Why keep: useful because Russian literature is not fully intelligible without the Slavophile/Westernizer argument underneath it. Read for concepts: sobornost, integral knowledge, church as living unity, Russia versus Europe, reason versus spiritual wholeness. Medium-high priority as background, not as devotional truth. Christian framework, so read analytically.