The beginning and the end of Russian religious philosophy

The article substantiates the periodization of Russian religious philosophy (1831–1951). The principle of division is the religious outlook of creative intelligentsia, changing its tendencies in one era or another. Its loss, as the author shows, led to the end of the original Russian philosophy. 1830–1850s are characterized as a cultural and religious period, since it was at this time that Russian religious philosophy solved the religion-culture relation in favor of the religion. From here, according to the author, there is a view of culture as a manifestation of a religious principle and faith in a person who replenishes itself through determination in God and the nation. Since 1861, a new phase of social development has come, the “soilbound” school has emerged as a kind of universalism, trying to eclectically reconcile the views of the Slavophils and Westernists, with a clear orientation to social and psychological problems, and therefore much more fruitful for literature than for philosophy. 1900–1910s is the period of ideological confusion, the struggle of selfwill and thirst for metaphysical revelations. It is comprehended as philosophical and eschatological, according to the worldview sharpened by a revolutionary catastrophe. The new period (since 1923) became the final and analytical one, when attention was drawn to the lessons of national self-understanding and the peculiarities of the Russian world outlook. Further success in this area is negligible. The author comes to the final conclusion that Russian religious philosophy completes its development in 1951.