Glen Attard

This study argues that friendship is the pivot around which revolves the entire thought system of The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters (1914), written by the renowned Russian polymath Pavel A. Florenskij (1882-1937), and that in our author’s view, friendship is not merely psychological or philanthropic but mystagogical. It is first of all – at least in the experience of the Church – a metaphysical or ontological bond which unites two souls together. True friendship is formed not of like minds, like thoughts, or like feelings, but of something metaphysically deeper than that, i.e., of the self-revelation of the spiritual Truth itself. It is only in the Truth, self-proving and self- abasing, that any human endeavour for spiritual, life-affirming meaning is found. Theologically speaking, friendship is the encounter between God and man. The solid ground of the Triune God – defined by our author as a friendship of inextinguishable love – builds, therefore, the beautiful pillar that is human, concrete, spiritual friendship in the Church, which is, above all, lived in the heroism of everyday life. As Christ’s two natures are distinct but not separate, fused but not confused, so are two souls bonded together in the communion of friendship without each ever losing their own individuality. Likewise, particular philic bonds are distinct but equally necessary for the general agapic bonds of the Church. Given today’s reclaiming of paradox both as an epistemological as well as an existential category, this study could not be more relevant to today’s metamodern culture. Florenskij’s mystagogy of friendship has the potential to dialogue with the metamodern self who is more connected than ever before but also more confused and isolated. It can offer spiritual certitude that so lacks in our times. Our analysis of Florenskij’s theodicy intends to highlight a path trodden by many generations of mystics before us so as to recover today the value of spiritual friendship.

By its very nature, for something to be "integral" implies that it is made of parts that are in harmony with each other. Seemingly contrasting parts integrate with each other to form a whole, and this dynamic is applied by Pavel Florensky in mathematics and science, in metaphysics, and also in his friendships. Academically, this takes the shape of interdisciplinary arguments which integrate into a unique spiritual perspective.

Between the 6th and the 7th December 2017, the Faculty of Theology commemorated the eightieth anniversary of the untimely death of one of Russia’s great polymath thinkers of the twentieth century, Pavel A. Florensky (1882-1937). While introducing this thinker to the academic and student community at the University of Malta, the Inter-Faculty Colloquium, organised by Rev. Dr Glen Attard o.carm., sought to celebrate Florensky’s interest in bringing together different streams of thought and research in view of a wider, more integrated form of knowledge. True knowledge, he would say, must serve the purpose to open us to new horizons, to overcome one-sided worldviews, to engage us in dialogue with the intrinsic and organic diversity of the world, and to let this same diversity shape the very fabric of our life and thought.

The modern man lives in a certain tension, which is characterised by a striving for autonomy, on the one hand, and a striving for relationships, on the other. How is he to resolve such a tension? What are its fundamental traits? Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), two apparently opposing figures, illustrate together such a tension well. Studies that have brought these two figures together seem to have so far contrasted or fairly compared them. This work intends to continue on the effort of complementing the two great figures, interpreting them from the point of view of their “wounded spirit”, showing how each has become a paradigm of either one of the two sides of the mentioned tension and, thus, hinting at a kind of new mystagogical language that characterises the modern study of Spirituality.