Mystical Enlightenment in Late Eighteenth-century Russia

 (PhD Thesis 2017)

Andreas Berg

Published 2017

380 Pages

1 File ▾

THESIS ABSTRACT

This thesis will examine the thought of G.S. Skovoroda (1722-1796), M.M.Kheraskov (1733-1807) and I.V. Lopukhin (1756-1816) as constitutive of a Mystical Enlightenment in Russia. Anglophone, and to a lesser extent, Russian literature has often conceived of the Russian Enlightenment as a single project of predominantly rational orientation. However, increasing attention to the presence of multiple Enlightenments in Western Europe and of the importance of religious debates in the formation of various reform movements, necessitate a reconsideration in the role of spirituality in Eighteenth-century Russia. For this reason, this thesis contributes to the recent re-evaluation of the ways in which Russia appropriated foreign discourses, and provides thereby a more detailed account of the extent to which mysticism was able to radically redefine religious, personal and ethical organisational forms. Specifically, this thesis offers an analysis of normative arguments based on three inter-linked concepts of ecclesia, personhood and ascetic ethics. These were the constitutive elements of a sustained mystical critique of the Russian Polizeistaat

 
. By means of a close reading of a select number of primary sources, this thesis provides an explanation of why mysticism had such a strong mobilizational capacity in comparison to more rational discourses in late Eighteenth-century Russia. By doing so, the thesis demonstrates how Eighteenth and early Nineteenth-century mystical writers were able to successfully orient the mind towards rational worldly action. From this analysis, a more complete picture emerges of how religiously-minded thinkers in Russia grappled with the imperative to rethink and rejustify their commitments to important worldly institutions, concepts and practices. I have, almost exclusively, focused on ideas rather than on their context. Because of this, broader social ramifications of mysticism have not been explored in this thesis. Future research needs to consult Russian archival material in order to remedy this. Hopefully, however, my research offers fresh perspectives on the trajectories of Enlightenment in Russia and raises a range of issues for further examination and debate