Pavel Florenskij’s mystagogical manual of antinomic friendship

Abstract

Being the first major volume to focus solely onFlorenskij’s ideas about and experience of friendship,first and foremost, I re-examine the Pillar from thepoint of view of Florenskij’s claim in “To the Reader,”“If I nevertheless do att ribute some significance to my Letters, it is an exclusively preparatory one, forcatechumens. These lett ers are intended to providesome sustenance for them until they are able toreceive nourishment directly from their Mother’shand.” I take this statement as an indication of Florenskij’s mystagogical intention to outline for“catechumens” a spiritual journey in the faith which finds its culmination in the experience of ecclesialfriendship, as explained in the last two letters of the Pillar. In light of this claim, I start by presenting Florenskij as a mystagogue and argue in what way the Pillar is a mystagogical manual. Aware of thenumerous controversial debates that have clouded the theme of friendship in Florenskij, I go back to his private letters to explore several of his friendships, starting with God, whom he “befriended” inJuly 1899 and ending with his wife Anna M. Giacintova, whom he married in August 1910.