Now Available: Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought by Dominic Rubin

Wed Jun 9 21:29:35 UTC 2010

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Academic Studies Press is pleased to announce that Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought by Dominic Rubin is now available. Please visit our website at www.academicstudiespress.com for more information about this book and the other titles we publish.  If you are interested in ordering directly, please feel free to contact our sales department at sales at academicstudiespress.com and mention that you are a member of SEELANGS for your discount. We look forward to hearing from you!

Holy Russia, Sacred Israel: Jewish-Christian Encounters in Russian Religious Thought

By Dominic Rubin

ISBN 978-1-934843-79-6 (cloth) $55.00 / £45.99

400 pp., June 2010

Review Copies available upon request

Series: Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History

Topic Area(s): Russian- Jewish Studies, Jewish Philosophy, Russian Philosophy, Identity Studies.

Bibliographic Data: 1. Judaism - Russia - history. 2. Judaism - Soviet Union - history. 3. Russia - Religion. 4. Soviet Union - Religion. 5. Judaism - Relations - Christianity. 6. Christianity and other religions - Judaism. I. Title.  

Reading Level: Academic / General

Holy Russia, Sacred Israel examines how Russian religious thinkers, both Jewish and Christian, conceived of Judaism, Jewry and the ‘Old Testament’ philosophically, theologically and personally at a time when the Messianic element in Russian consciousness was being stimulated by events ranging from the pogroms of the 1880s, through two Revolutions and World Wars, to exile in Western Europe. An attempt is made to locate the boundaries between the Jewish and Christian, Russian and Western, Gnostic-pagan and Orthodox elements in Russian thought in this period. The author reflects personally on how the heritage of these thinkers – little analyzed or translated in the West – can help Orthodox (and other) Christians respond to Judaism (including ‘Messianic Judaism’), Zionism, and Christian anti-Semitism today.

Author: Dominic Rubin (Ph.D. in Linguistics, London University) is a lecturer in Philosophy, Biblical Hebrew, Old Testament at St.Philaret’s Orthodox Christian Institute and the Moscow Higher School of Economics.

Reviews:

"Dominic Rubin's Holy Russia, Sacred Israel is a formidable and profoundly impressive piece of research, which needed to be done, and I was very glad to see it. It is a major piece of work."

-- Most Reverend. Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

 “Holy Russia, Sacred Israel is without a doubt a very important book and contribution to the field. With a deep and sympathetic understanding for both Judaism and Russian Orthodoxy, Dominic Rubin gives us new readings of some of the canonical figures of Russian thought: Soloviev, Florensky, Rozanov, Gershenzon, Karsavin, and Fedotov, among others. This is an important book for Russian culture because the author has no axe to grind and is unafraid of telling truth to power, facing both past anti-Jewish agitation and propaganda, while at the same time never surrendering hope for a future Russian-Jewish philosophical dialogue. Each figure is judged primarily on the merits of their thinking as theology and as humane expression, in a way which displays erudition, tolerance and a love for both Russian and Jewish culture.” 

-- Brian Horowitz, Professor of Russian and Chair of Jewish Studies, Tulane University

“This is a truly exceptional book. I have reread chapters time and again. In these pages, there are so many things of immediate interest, mainly, I think, for Orthodox theologians and Church leaders. The presentation and commentary on landmark figures like Soloviev, Bulgakov, Berdyaev and Florensky will be of great benefit in helping Orthodox Christians in the twenty first century understand in depth the past relationship between Christianity and Judaism in the Orthodox context, during a period that was of crucial importance for both faiths. Very few people are aware of the details of this relationship, and this book is invaluable in assessing how today’s Orthodox Christians can learn from the past.”

-- Fr. Vasile Mihoc, Professor of New Testament Studies, Lucien Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania

Table of Contents: 

Preface .....  9

Chapter One: Soloviev’s Judeo-Russian Wisdom . . . . .  13
Introduction: Russian Jewry in the time of Soloviev . . . . . 15
Soloviev’s general development . . . . .  24
Soloviev, the Jews and Judaism . . . . .  29
The flawed wholeness of the Jewish nation .....    29
The encounter with J.Rabinowitz .....     36
Judaism, Judeo-Christianity and the Law . . . . .40
Talmudic Judaism and integral Christianity .....   43
Sophia (Soph-Jah) and Judaic/Christian pan(en)theism . . . . . 47
Jewish responses to Soloviev . . . . .    53

Chapter Two: Bulgakov and the sacred blood of Jewry . . . . .      59
Bulgakov: wrestling with Soloviev’s heritage . . . . .  61
The Jews in Bulgakov’s thought: a preview of the main 
problem . . . . .  66
Judaism and the Old Testament in Bulgakov’s early 
philosophy . . . . .   69
Two Cities (1906-1910) . . . . .    70
The Unfading Light (1917) . . . . .    74
Bulgakov and Kabbalah . . . . . 80
Bulgakov and Jewry (1): in Russia – the shadow of the 
Revolution . . . . .  82
An early essay in Christian Zionism (1915) . . . . . 82
The paradox of Bulgakov’s anti-Semitism . . . . .  91
Bulgakov’s recollections of the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions . . .101
Bulgakov and Jewry (2): in exile – the shadow of the 
Holocaust . . . .   105
The Biblical conception of blood and nation . . . . 108
Sophiology and sacred blood ....     112
The blood-chosenness of the Jews after Christ .... 123
The collective fate of Israel and the remnant ....127
A critical development of Bulgakov’s ideas . . . .134
A Messianic Jewish reading of Bulgakov? ....  134
A (covert) two-covenant reading of Bulgakov? 
Judas, Saul, and Paul . . . .     138
Conclusion . . . .   147
Bulgakov in two contemporary Russian-Jewish
interpretations . . . .  149

Chapter Three: N. Berdyaev, M. Gershenzon and 
L. Shestov: Jewish and Russian Nihilists of the Spirit .... 153
The three pessimists . . . . 155
Berdyaev and Gershenzon . . . .  157
Nicolai Berdyaev ....   157
Mikhail Gershenzon ....  161

Between Slavophilism and Bolshevism . . . . 165
Berdyaev and Gershenzon on Slavophilism ....  165
Gershenzon, Berdyaev and the Bolshevik Revolution ....  174
Gershenzon and Vyacheslav Ivanov after the Revolution .... 177
1922: Berdyaev and Gershenzon on history . . . .  183
Berdyaev on history and Jewry ....     184
Gershenzon and Jewish destiny ....  188
Pushkin-Ahasuerus . . . . 188
Apotheosis of Jewishness: Gershenzon against Land, Torah and People . . . .   191
The ‘Judaization’ of Berdyaev ....    197
Lev Shestov . . . . 200
Shestov on Gershenzon ....     203
Shestov on Buber and Judaism ....   205
Shestov on Berdyaev .... 207
Shestov, Bulgakov and Steinberg . . . .     211
Bulgakov on Shestov: ‘fi deist without faith’ ....212
Steinberg on Shestov: reveal the ‘black man’ .... 214
Judaism beyond the Pale: superseding both Testaments . . . .     220
Gershenzon and Shestov – differences and similarities ....  220
V.V.Zenkovsky: the dialectic of Jewry and Christianity .... 225

Chapter Four: Vasily Rozanov (and Pavel Florensky) ....    227
‘Sinful slave Vasily….’ . . . .      229
Rozanov’s intellectual development. . . . .  236
Early Rozanov: Judaism over Christianity . . . .  246
“Judaism” (1903) ....     246
The immanent church of conciliar Jewry ....   249
1. Circumcision .... 249
2. Sabbath .... 254
3. Mikveh ....  258

Astarte, Egypt and Judaism ....    262
The agonies of Marcionism ....  262
Middle Rozanov: Russia expels the Jew within . . . .  267
Two Jewish encounters in the Beilis years .... 271
Mikhail Gershenzon ....271
Aaron Steinberg ....283
Rozanov’s Judeophobic outpourings (1911-1914) ....  288
Florensky: Rozanov’s secret helper . . . . 294
Florensky’s Jewish writings ....   298
Ritual murder and the eucharist ....  301
The flaw in Florensky’s two-tiered logic .... 304
Florensky, Romans 11 and Jewish blood ....307
Florensky’s ‘Kabbalistic scholarship’ ....   312
Florensky: the broader context . . . .  313
Occultism and magic ....   313
Political totalitarianism ....  315
Katsis and Florensky’s ‘Christian exegesis’ .... 317

Preface                                                                      Florensky’s position in Russian religious thought ....  319
Name-worship and symbolism . . . .  322
Iosef Davydovich Levin: “I met Florensky once….” ...326
Christianity and anti-Semitism: final words .... 330

Chapter Five: L. Karsavin and A. Steinberg: Russia and 
Israel Symphonically Interwined ....     335
Two friends, two worlds . . . .     337
Eurasianism,Volphila, Autonomism ....  342
The Karsavin-Steinberg exchange . . . . 347
Karsavin .... 347
Steinberg ....360
Inflected philosophy: Jews and Russians among the Greeks . . 367
Steinberg, Jewishness and philosophy: How strange 
 that I am a Jew. . . . . 367

Jewishness and Russianness in philosophy ....378
Jewish Platonized Kantianism ....  379
Steinberg and Jewishness in philosophy ....386
The boundaries between the believer and the world . . . .  391
Core and periphery, Orthodoxy and Revolution .... 391
The case of Georgy Fedotov ....   393
The case of Alexander Meier ....  396
Karsavin: rootless Christianity . . . . 399
“A Study in Apologetics” ....400
Karsavin: experiencing the Jewish vision of God 
(Poem on Death) . . . . 410
The tortured Jewess ....  410
Contrary couples .... 412

Karsavin’s and Steinberg’s triadology ....  417
Israel and the living God ....422
The end of the Poem on Death ....  428
The Inquisitor and the Jewess-‘conversa’ ....429
The final drama ....432
The role of the Jewess in the final drama .... 435
Jews and personality ....436
Final years: London, Lithuania, Siberia . . . . 439
Abez and a final Jewish encounter .... 441
Death and burial .... 442

Chapter Six: Semyon Frank: from russkiy yevrei to russkiy yevropeetz . . . . 445
Frank: the Jew as universal man . . . . 447
Frank’s philosophy . . . .  455
Frank and Gershenzon . . . .462
Frank’s universalism ....463
Frank and Gershenzon from Landmarks to Revolution ....469
Gershenzon and Frank: the wisdom of Pushkin ....472
Pushkin between Frank and Gershenzon .... 473
Pushkin’s message for contemporary Russia .... 475
Russian-Jewish Wisdom ....  482
Frank and German-Jewish philosophy . . . .  485
Cohen and Frank ....486
Frank and Cohen on suffering .... 490
Frank and Rosenzweig ....   495
The argument of The Star and Frank’s critique ....  496
The Star .... 496
The critique ....498
Evaluation of Frank’s critique ....   500
Frank and O.Goldberg ....507
Conclusion .... 508

Conclusion: Soloviev’s heirs: the third generation ....511
Alexander Men: Bulgakovian Judeo-Christianity? . . . . 511
The polemic against Men’s Jewish Christianity . . . . 514
N.Feingold and S.Lyosov ....   514
Men in the context of post-Auschwitz theology ....516
Benevich: no Jew, no gentile – no Russian? ....   520
Conclusion: Russian Orthodoxy and Jewish-Christian 
dialogue . . . . 522
Bibliography .... 527
Index ....547

All the best,

Christa Kling

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