Thursday, December 15, 2022

It is the 15th of December 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Another day, another polymath- that is, a polymath is perhaps a better term for a renaissance man- as one, there are Renaissance women, and the 15th and 16th centuries don’t have a corner on the market of people learned or “manthanein” in many “poly” things.

So- today we meet Father Pavel Florensky- a man whom it was said died on this day in 1937 in a Soviet Gulag, but new records suggest he was shot after a sham trial and buried in a mass grave. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote that Father Pavel was perhaps the most remarkable person devoured by the gulag. Let’s tell the story of this most remarkable person.

Pavel Florensky was born in 1882 in the Russian Empire in modern Azerbaijan. His father was an engineer who came from a line of priests, and his mother was Armenian nobility. He attended a gymnasium (like a high school and jr. college) in Georgia (the Russian one) and showed remarkable capability in mathematics. He received a degree in mathematics and philosophy from the University, but a dramatic conversion led him to enter Moscow Theological Academy. He was not raised in the church but had a “metaphysical experience” of “existential darkness and meaninglessness” where he heard or saw the name of God- when a voice called his name, he became convinced of the reality of the spiritual world, and his path would lead him into the Russian orthodox church and academy. 

There he joined the radical “Union of Christian Struggle,” was arrested, and soon soured on the radical movement.

He was ordained a priest in 1911, the same year he was married.

In 1914 he published his landmark work- “The Pillar and Ground of Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy,”- the theme being how to ascertain divine truth in a sinful world. It’s a complicated book, but essentially it reflects on two fundamental doctrines in Eastern Orthodoxy- the incarnation and the trinity. The incarnation opens the network for human salvation and flourishing. At the same time, the trinity unlocks the mystery of not only our relationship with God but with our neighbors as well- his doctrine of “brotherhood” is brought out by this book being addressed as a letter to a brother (who may be understood as Christ). Hear this from the introduction to the English translation published in 1997:

“The Pillar and Ground of the Truth is, to be sure, a strange and difficult work. It can be academically obsessive and pretentious. It is at times philosophically abstract and at times poetically lyrical. It attempts to appeal almost simultaneously to the intellect, the will, and the heart. It meanders and repeats, it teaches and exhorts, it preaches and prays. Yet, while this book may try Western readers’ patience from time to time, it will also trace anew their steps along familiar paths and lead them down roads less traveled. The ultimate value of The Pillar and Ground of the Truth rests in the quality of its cosmic vision of love and the richness of its variegated texture. It is this vision and texture that come from the heart of the culture of Russian Orthodoxy.”

His church, as all churches were, closed with the Russian Revolution- but his engineering training and technical skill led Leon Trotsky to name him to the board for the Electrification of Russia. He continued to wear his priestly garb but was left alone as he was considered too valuable to the state. He wrote a book on electrical engineering that became the standard textbook in Soviet universities. He wrote a book on art history and a geometric explanation of Einstein’s theory of relativity. In Soviet history, he wasn’t referred to as a philosopher priest but instead as the inventor of non-coagulating machine oil.

When Stalin came to power, he was exiled, usually to a distant camp where he was still able to work on experiments for the state. But by 1937, he had become too much of a pest to the regime and allegedly refused to reveal the whereabouts of a relic the Soviets wanted to be destroyed. He was sentenced to death but likely shot immediately after the trial and disposed of- it was 1943, and Father Pavel Florensky was 61 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from Galatians 3:

23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 15th of December 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man of whom it has been said, “It meanders and repeats, it teaches and exhorts, it preaches and prays.” He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man of whom it has been said “strange and difficult…can be academically obsessive and pretentious” I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.