Is Humanity King to Creation? The Thought of Vladimir Solov'ev in the Light of Ecological Crisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v2i4.463Keywords:
environmental theology, russian sophiologyAbstract
The Russian philosopher, poet and mystic Vladimir Solov'ev (1853-1900), the father of the sophiological movement in Russian thought, remains a little known figure in the West. This article considers Solov'ev’s credentials as an environmentalist before his time and develops a number of strands of his biblical theology from an ecological perspective. It goes on to explore his envisioning of the ‘kingship’ of humanity in God’s creation, which he understood as the ideal relationship between humanity and the world, and to unravel the complexities of his thought on the ‘coming’ of the Kingdom of God. The article suggests that Solov'ev has much to offer theologians and religious people in the articulation, and application, of an ecological theology of creation.References
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———. 2000a. ‘Sophia, Mary and the Eternal Feminine in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Sergei Bulgakov’, Ecotheology 10.2: 215-31. doi:10.1558/ecot.2005.10.2.215.
———. 2000b. Creation through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark): 73-92.
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———. 1989. Sochineniia v dvukh tomakh (ed. N. Kotrelev; 2 vols.; Moscow: Pravda).
———. 1990. ‘Nepodvizhno lish' solntse liubvi…’ Stikhotvoreniia; Proza; Pis'ma; Vospominaniia sovremennikov (ed. A.A. Nosov; Moscow: Moskovskii rabochii).
———. 1995. Dukhovnye osnovy zhizni (St. Petersburg: TOO Magic Press).
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———. 2000b. ‘Tri svidaniia’, in D. Rayfield (ed.), The Garnett Book of Russian Verse (London: Garnett Press).
———. 2000–2001. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v 20 tomakh (ed. A.A. Nosov; 3 vols.; Moscow: Nauka).
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———. 2003. ‘The Meaning of Love’, in V. Wozniuk (ed.), The Heart of Reality: Essays on Beauty, Love and Ethics by V.S. Soloviev (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press): 83-133.
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———. 2005. The Justification of the Good (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
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Williams, R. 2005. ‘Eastern Orthodox Theology’, in D. Ford (ed.), The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918 (Malden, MA: Blackwell): 572-88.
Bissell, T. April 2002. ‘Eternal Winter: Lessons of the Aral Sea Disaster’, Harper’s Magazine: 41-56.
Davidson, P. 2000. ‘Vladimir Solov'ev and the Ideal of Prophecy’, Slavonic and East European Review 78: 643-70.
Deane-Drummond, C. 1997. ‘Sophia: The Feminine Face of God as a Metaphor for an Ecotheology’, Feminist Theology 16: 11-31. doi:10.1177/096673509700001602.
———. 2000a. ‘Sophia, Mary and the Eternal Feminine in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Sergei Bulgakov’, Ecotheology 10.2: 215-31. doi:10.1558/ecot.2005.10.2.215.
———. 2000b. Creation through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark): 73-92.
Kantor, V. 2005. ‘Vladimir Solov'ev Contra Friedrich Nietzsche, ili ozhidavshiisiia konets evropeiskoi istorii’, Slovo/Word 46. Online: http://magazines.russ.ru/slovo/2005/46/kan9.html (accessed 20 March 2008).
Losev, A. 2000. Vladimir Solov'ev i ego vremia (Moscow: Molodaia Gvardiia).
Lovelock, J. 2006. The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity (New York: Basic Books).
McGrath, A.E. 2000. Christian Theology: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell).
Meyendorff, J. 1987. ‘Wisdom-Sophia: Contrasting Approaches to a Complex Theme’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41: 391-401. doi:10.2307/1291575.
Moltmann, J. 1971. Theology and Joy (London: SCM Press).
Solov'ev, V.S. 1911–14. Sobranie sochinenii v 10 t. (ed. S.M. Solov'ev and E.L. Radlov; 10 vols.; St. Petersburg: Prosveshchenie).
———. 1989. Sochineniia v dvukh tomakh (ed. N. Kotrelev; 2 vols.; Moscow: Pravda).
———. 1990. ‘Nepodvizhno lish' solntse liubvi…’ Stikhotvoreniia; Proza; Pis'ma; Vospominaniia sovremennikov (ed. A.A. Nosov; Moscow: Moskovskii rabochii).
———. 1995. Dukhovnye osnovy zhizni (St. Petersburg: TOO Magic Press).
———. 2000a. Filosofskii slovar' (Rostov-na-Donu: Feniks).
———. 2000b. ‘Tri svidaniia’, in D. Rayfield (ed.), The Garnett Book of Russian Verse (London: Garnett Press).
———. 2000–2001. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v 20 tomakh (ed. A.A. Nosov; 3 vols.; Moscow: Nauka).
Soloviev, V.S. 2000. ‘A Brief Tale about the Antichrist’, in V. Wozniuk (ed.), Politics, Law, Morality: Essays by V.S. Soloviev (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press): 264-89.
———. 2003. ‘The Meaning of Love’, in V. Wozniuk (ed.), The Heart of Reality: Essays on Beauty, Love and Ethics by V.S. Soloviev (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press): 83-133.
Solovyov, V. 1995. Lectures on Divine Humanity (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press).
———. 2005. The Justification of the Good (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Sutton, J. 1988. The Religious Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov: Towards a Reassessment (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
Trotskii, L.D. 1924. Literatura i revoliutsiia (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo).
Trubetskoi, S.N. 1991. ‘Smert' V. S. Solov'eva: 31 iiulia 1900 g.’, in B. Averin (ed.), Kniga o Vladimire Solov'eve (Moscow: Sovetskii pisatel'): 292-99.
Weiner, D.R. 2000. Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press).
Williams, R. 2005. ‘Eastern Orthodox Theology’, in D. Ford (ed.), The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology since 1918 (Malden, MA: Blackwell): 572-88.
Published
2009-03-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Smith, O. L. (2009). Is Humanity King to Creation? The Thought of Vladimir Solov’ev in the Light of Ecological Crisis. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2(4), 463-482. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v2i4.463
