News

March-June 2018

The president of the Society Sergey Anatolyevich Grib, the doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, the employee of GAO RAS, passed away. Sergei Anatolyevich had a number of achievements in the field of solar wind research, but also, being a bearer of high culture, took his place in the formation of the Russian intellectual tradition. Following him his only wife Natalia Kuzminichna passed out of life. Rest in peace!

 05.12.2017

The report of Makhlak K.A. "Philosophy of N.A. Berdyaev. Fantasies and insights."

26.09.2017

The report of Ph.D. sister Teresa Obolevich from the Pontifical Theological University in Krakow "Science and religion in the works of Vl. Solovyov and F. Dostoevsky"

05.08.2017

A permanent member of our Society and our good friend Markiyan Semyonovich Chubey, a fine and very kind person, passed away. Markiyan Semenovich was the leading scientist of The Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Pulkovo, he was the author of the AIST project concept for performing fundamental astrometric observations in space conditions. His ideas were inspired by Dr. E. Høg to develop the concept of the Hipparcos-2 satellite and, in the future, had an impact on the GAIA project. At the initiative of Japanese astronomers, one of the minor planets of the Solar System was named after Markiyan Semenovich – (9222) Chubey = 1995YM.

24.03.2017

The report of Makhlak K.A. on the theme "Archaic and modern in the concrete metaphysics of the priest Pavel Florensky."

30.03.2016

There was a meeting with the Archpriest Michael Braverman.  Father Michael presented the two of his new book, and he read a chapter dedicated to the condescension of God into the world.

04.02.2016

At the regular meeting of the Society there were 2 performances with poetry: one – by E.O. Pudovkina, another – by P.L. Brandt.

25.11.2015

Father Dmitry Dmitriyev shared impressions of his fourth trip to Poland. He made a report "Christian fundamentals of the Russian religious philosophy" at the Krakow university. The report was written together with the president of the Society Sergey Grib.

29.10.2015

Ph.D. sister Teresa Obolevich (Krakow) gave details about her work in the library at Columbia University, where he kept a personal archive of S.L. Frank. Among his correspondents were Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, Chizhevsky, Florovsky, Ilyin, Losskiy, Struve, and others. Sister Teresa answered some questions concerning the personal acquaintance of Frank and Einstein, possible commonality of their ideas related to the modern doctrine of anti-gravity, as well as the causes of lack of demand for Russian philosophers of the West.

26.12.2014

Father Dmitry Dmitriev made a report "The phenomenon of laughter in the Christian culture". It was about acceptable boundaries of laughter in the Christian culture.

17.09.2014

The guest from Poland Ph.D. sister Teresa Obolevich (Krakow) gave a report: "The basic features of the religious philosophy of S.L. Frank". There were questions and discussion from the audience and a significantly positive perception of the report itself.

07.05.2014

The report of Father Michael Braverman about the dogmatic teaching of the Church. There was the discussion of the report.

09.28.2013

The meeting in memory of Father Pavel Adelgeim was organized by the members of the society.
The speakers were S.A.Grib, A. A.Grib, M.F.Yakubson, F.Dmitriy.

19.12.2013

The report of A.V. Kreitzer about his impressions of the trip to the island of Crete (Greece).

03.11.2012

The report of Ph.D. sister Teresa Obolevich from the Pontifical Theological University in Krakow on the perception of the philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov in Poland.

26.04.2012

The report of A.S. Grib and S.S. Kozin "Two trips to Iran. Personal experience."

12.12.2011

The report of A.A. Burov (the Institute of History of Religion) about the activities of the Institute.

01.07.2011

The professor Fr George Mitrofanov made a report on historical features of Russian church and its responsibility. The lecturer managed to show convincingly enough that godlessness and social disasters of Russian people, and also Russian church, are in many respects caused by actions of the church and a historical situation in which it at various times appeared. This fair "sight from within" is worthy respect.

26.06.2011

The president of the Society Dr.S.A.Grib was giving a report "Main points in present religious-philosophical activity of our society", devoted to the collection of Works of members of a society which prepare for the publication.

25.09.2009

The society report at conference «the culture Justification in V.S.Soloviev's creativity and in Russian philosophical thought» (the Ivanovo state power university).

28.02.2008

Performance of the leading research assistant, the associate editor of the international magazine «Transpersonal psychology», Dr.Sci.Biol., genetics, Tonu R. Soidla. The basic ideas of transpersonal psychology and a current state of these ideas have been discussed. In contrast «to data to simple» when consciousness conditions are considered discretely as a set of phenomena and "no more than that", on what it is possible to spread out them, the transpersonal psychology tries to understand mystical experience without reduction, prosecuting subjects lying outside of "I", the border conditions of consciousness.

The current state of transpersonal psychology can be characterized as some decline.

15.02.2005

The presentation of Peter Brandt lyrics and the report of A.V. Kreitzer “St. Petersburg in World’s Fate” was done. You can find the summary of the report here in English.

02.12.2004

There was given a report on the activity of Madonna House by J. Romanovsky (USA).

12.03.2004

The professor E.A. Resvan made a report "Islam: word, image, dialog".

16.01.2004

The guest from Moscow Dr. A.Y. Vinogradov (The Institute of the global history Ac. of. Sc., Moscow University, the Orthodox Institute of St. Tikhon) made the report "Ancient and modern apocrypha". The tradition to make the apocrypha in Russia and other countries was considered.

31.10.2003

At the meeting of the society the report of Dr. of music Y.I. Rubanenko was done. It was about "The problem of Creation in the modern cultural consciousness" of human beings carried by interest in magic, when creating force is actually lost.

A member of the religious-philosophical society in honor of Vladimir Soloviev Dr. Sergey A. Grib with the support of the society translated from French to Russian the book of the pupil of  rev. Sergey Bulgakov Pavel Evdokimov "L'Ortodoxie" which was published by the Biblical-theological Institute of St. Apostle Andrey in Moscow in 2002. By the way, the editorial board "Satis" with the support of the society published in Saint-Petersburg the book of  M. A. Popovskiy "Life and Zhitie of saint Luka Voino-Jasenevsky archbishop and surgeon" (Saint-Petersburg, 2002). We are waiting for the publishing of the book of bishop Kallistos Ware "The Orthodox Way" which was translated by a member of the society Andrew Krasilshchikov. On October 22, 2002 there was meeting of the society dedicated to the theme "Revival and foundries of the Curch" in which rev. Pavel Adelgeim took part with the report.

On December 16, 2001 at St.Petersburg Theological Academy thanks to the effort of the Academy insiders and the Society itself an international meeting commemorated the centenary from the date of Vladimir Soloviev's death was arranged and successfully held. In addition to the members of the Society, Father Kyrill Kopeykin, the academic secretary of the Academy, and a number of students attended the meeting. The first speaker (after a small historical report of Father Kyrill), the President of Sol. Soc., Dr. S.Grib, was speaking about V.Soloviev as about a highly influential phenomenon of Russian Religious philosophy whose founder he is supposed to be. The main thought Soloviev adhered to, and which stands him out among his ancestors, as S.Grib underlined, was his conviction of the profound oneness of human- being and real God, of the creature and the Creator where the former is a co- worker of the Latter. Soloviev maintained that it is through humans that all the creation can come to its Creator, and this dynamic process may be called a Godmanhood process. The speaker dwelled on his personal existential comprehension of the philosophy of V.Soloviev, since Soloviev's ideas would help him to affirm reality of personal relations with Christ.

Robert F.Slesinski (professor of Philosophy from New Jersey) presented his paper The idea of goodness in Soloviev s philosophy . His central thesis concerned the aesthetic views of Soloviev, which as the reporter showed were inseparably linked with his gnoseological system. Natural beauty is what it is only due to goodness, and deprived of goodness it appears to be an idol. In God, force, goodness, and beauty become reconciled and rest in peace, the speaker concluded.

The report of Prof. A.Grib (a physicist from St.Petersburg Laboratory of Friedmann) dealt with one of the most controversial issues the dispute on the Western teaching about Filioque and the division between the so-called West and the so-called East. As A.Grib observed the Western world had changed the entire world for last 200 years, and that could have never happened in Russia. The reason for that A. Grib discloses in the filioque addition caused the split between Catholic and Orthodox Churches in 11th century. The matter is that filioque means that the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son but not only from the Father as Orthodoxy asserts. The Son is Eternal Divine Logos, and during His incarnation He was born in time, He is united with the Father but He is His revelation observable by humans. The fact that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son too makes cognition of the Divine actually possible through rationalizing the natural world. That is to say knowledge of the Unknowable becomes deducible from the created self-sufficient existence. The eastern tradition testifies the apophatic approach to defining the Divine which we can only experience but not wrap in words. So there is a special tradition of hesychasm (Gr quietness) in Russia saying that the sacred is out of words, it is unutterable, and any attempts to objectvate it were taken as blasphemy. A.Grib supposes that this difference in attitudes towards the Divine motivated the split between the Churches, after which the West chose to advance natural knowledge: it caused the emergence of theology and sciences, and finally led to the Inquisition, crusades and extended subdual in all senses of the world around, and to the actual state of affairs in the West (the reporter avoided making any evaluations).

This report aroused a heated argument in which the catholic presented expressed doubt concerning a direct connection of the filioque addition and the Western civilization.

The next speaker, A.Havard from Helsinki, emphasized Soloviev's rational understanding of Christian faith. He argued that for Soloviev the concept of panunity is not revealed by God but is a rational conclusion backed by his mystical experience.

The report of A.Krasilshchikov (St.Petersburg) was mostly aimed at outlining a logical and ontological framework Soloviev used in his works. The speaker attempted to show the internal logical completeness of the philosopher s reflections in determining such notions as panunity and Godmanhood.

The last speaker, I.Gladkovsky (St.Petersburg) told the conference about Soloviev s views on the natural world.

During the round table session arranged after a short break all the problems discussed in the reports were raised again and considered in a more thorough and comprehensive form.

On February, 22, 2001 the next meeting of the Society was held. A member of the Society Yu.Tselischev made a report "Religion in the modern world".