A union of souls : Christological friendship in Pavel Florensky's “The pillar and ground of the truth"

Abstract

Some scholars have claimed that the figure of Christ in The Pillar and Ground of the Truth is unpardonably absent. The main aim of this thesis is to defend the view of the majority of Florenskijan scholars who regard his work as unmistakably Christological. Florensky firmly believed that it is only “by the sufferings of my God Jesus Christ crucified” that one is saved. The research question we are proposing for our field of research is: to what extent is Christ significant in Florensky's Pillar? Also, to what extent can we link true knowledge with experience? Must one consider the Pillar only as a doctrinal treatise or could we maybe also see it as a subtle revelation of the spiritual journey of the author himself in communion with Christ? Florensky's work is dynamic not only in its material object, but also in its method as well as in its climax: love of friendship as the concrete milieu where Florensky's Christological mysticism is lived out. With its inherent antinomical dynamic movement of the self-kenotic and other-regard, it is the “apex of humanity” and “the only thing that brings us close to Godlikeness.”