Evgeny Trubetskoy’s Cosmology as an Attempt to Synthesize Vladimir Solovyov’s Philosophy and Orthodox Doctrine

Abstract

The present article concerns analysis of cosmological views of the Russian religious philosopher prince Evgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy (1863–1920) in the context of Sophiological system of Vladimir Solovyov (1853–1900), the founder of the philosophical and theological approach of All-Unity in Russian religious philosophy, and Orthodox Christian doctrine. Despite the importance of Trubetskoy’s philosophical heritage that has influenced even the arguments of opponents of Sophio­logy, the thinker’s edifice has not been studied enough yet because Trubetskoy takes researchers’ attention more as a social thinker than a metaphysician philosopher. However, it is the prince’s metaphysics developing and transforming Solovyov’s sophiological project by eliminating its main shortcomings while developing trends consistent with the Orthodox doctrine, that is the central topic of Trubetskoy’s world­view. The scope of sophiological thought itself solving the puzzle of the interrelation between the Absolute and the world is cosmological, so the cosmological aspect of the prince’s philosophy enables to consider the interaction of Sophiology and Ortho­dox doctrine in his system in its prime: universal cosmological system which contains teaching about Sophia in itself and the process of the world deve­lopment from its creation to Eschaton. The comparative analysis of Trubetskoy’s and Solovyov’s cosmologies has revealed both the deep influence of his teacher’s ideas on the prince and significant differences in the understanding of Sophia’s nature and role in the cosmological process by two philosophers in aspects relating to the doctrine of creation ex nihilo and the question of the relationship between God and creation. Trubetskoy intended consciously to reconcile the concept of All-Unity with Orthodox dogma, excluding the substantiality of the world soul and identifying it with Sophia. However, synthesis was not always successful from the point of view of the Orthodox faith due to the impossibility of fully reconciling the philosophy of All-Unity with traditional Christian cosmology, as well as due to the adoption of the teaching of German mysticism, introduced into V. Solovyov’s philosophical system.