Aleksei Stepanovich Khomyakov

1st English Translation from Russian: "Aleksei Stepanovich Khomyakov" is an insightful book penned in 1912 by the eminent Russian religious philosopher, Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948). Under the perspective of "Khomyakov and us", the book explores, at depth and with extensive quotes, details of Khomyakov's life and thought. The book presents a number of ironies. A. S. Khomyakov was a central intellectual figure within the current of classical Slavophilism, which is typically glossed over for students of Russian thought as a conservative defense of the backwardness of the old Russian lifestyle; Khomyakov's view of Europe, however, as "the land of holy wonders" explodes this calumny. Rather, it is an Europe which is to be deeply engaged in accord with the Russian national psyche, not merely parroting the West. Khomyakov thus reworked Hegel and Schelling into a philosophy of "concrete idealism" based upon "an integral wholeness of life". The Slavophils supported the Russian Autocracy, but Khomyakov was regarded as a "dangerous man" by the tsar's functionaries. Khomyakov grounded Autocracy upon historical an event, when the Russian people peacefully and in accord chose Mikhail Romanov and his descendants to "assume the burden of rule". In this was a "poison pill". Khomyakov was an avid supporter of the Orthodox Church, but his theological writings were not allowed to be published, and had to be printed abroad, in French. Freedom, authentic freedom was a core tenet of the Slavophil conservatism, rendering them incompatible for employ by the bureaucracy, which they detested. Unlike the later leftist Narodniki (Populists), who were weighed down by a sense of guilt and alienation from the "narod/people", the Slavophils sensed themself at one with "the people". The Orthodox Church was central a motif in Slavophil thought. Khomyakov saw the inner essence of the Church as comprising "love and freedom". Against papal pretensions he coined the concept of Sobornost', a vision of true catholicity grounded in communality, based not upon force and blind obedience, but rather upon authentic love and freedom, as any true community must be. Khomyakov discerned within history two distinct and conflicting creative types. The Kushite type creates massive works in mute stone, in objectified and depersonalising materiality, and relates to reality in fetish magical an attitude. The Iranian (Zoroastrian Persian) is otherwise, reflecting the inward freedom and fluid plasticity of life