Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) was probably the most important Russian religious philosopher of the modern period, both for his own original contributions and for his influence on later thinkers. While perhaps most well known for his ecumenical efforts directed towards unifying Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and for his discussion of Sophia, both of which have continued to be controversial, the most fundamental idea of his religious philosophy, what was the basis for everything else he did or thought, was the idea of *Godmanhood*, or *Divine Humanity*.
His first statement and exploration of this idea was given in his 1878 *Lectures on Divine Humanity*. Given publicly in St. Petersburg only a few days after an attempted assassination of its mayor, the lectures were something of a sensation. Solovyov tried to use the language of modern philosophy to proclaim the truth of Christ to his audience of Russian intelligentsia, which included among others luminaries such as both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
Solovyov's concern was to find the *essence* of Christianity, what really makes it unique. And his answer was, simply: Christ. "Christianity has a content of its own, and that content is solely and exclusively Christ."[^1] While this may seem somewhat obvious, too many who call themselves Christians mistakenly "believe that the essence of Christianity is Christ's teaching and not his person."[^2] But Christ's teachings about morality, or about God the Father, were not really unique, thought Solovyov, and parallel teachings can be found in many other religions and philosophies. What was unique was his teaching about himself as living, incarnate Truth. And even where the centrality of this claim has been accepted, its implications have not been fully grappled with.
In the orthodox understanding of the incarnation, Christ is said to be fully human and fully divine: two natures in one person or *hypostasis*. As the "second Adam," Christ shows the true nature of humanity in its vocation to be united with God. Christ's Godmanhood is not simply an individual matter, but the final cause of humanity as a whole. Christians are those who have "put on Christ" (Rom. 13:14), and the Church is Christ's Body. To call people to Christ, then, is to call them to be a part of his Divine-Humanity, to become deified. And the implications here are not just limited to human beings, but are cosmic in scope, "for he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph. 1:9-10).
Though I don't know if he ever cites St. Maximus the Confessor, Solovyov's emphasis here finds its clearest parallel expression in that great saint, who claims that the mystery of the incarnation is the final goal of creation. And "this mystery is obviously the ineffable and incomprehensible union according to hypostasis of divinity and humanity. This union brings humanity into perfect identity, in every way, with divinity, through the principle of the hypostasis, and from both humanity and divinity it completes the single composite hypostasis, without creating any diminishment due to the essential difference of the natures." [^3] And as he says elsewhere, "By this blessed inversion, man is made God by divinization and God is made man by hominization. For the Word of God and God *wills always and in all things to accomplish the mystery of his embodiment.*" [^4]
More about the cosmic scope of the mystery of Godmanhood is made clear, according to Solovyov, when we look in closer detail at the actual teachings of Christ, as well. The central Gospel preached by Christ, that which unifies all the miracles and moral teachings, is "the Gospel of the Kingdom--the good news of the Kingdom of God...the central idea of the Gospel, according to the Gospel's own testimony, is the idea of the Kingdom of God." The most important implication of this is that it requires of the Christian that he or she sees history as *directed* toward something. History is not aimless, cannot be understood in an entirely secular way. The history of the world is the history of the coming of the Kingdom of God, which has arrived to some degree with the coming of Christ and the formation of the Church, but which is still in the process of being realized and will not reach its highest fulfillment until the end of the world.
The Kingdom of God is, in a way, just another name for Godmanhood or Divine Humanity. It is God and man working together through the power of the Godman to effect the unity of man with man and man with God, "so that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28). And this means that the Christian must see all of history as a "God-human process" leading to the reign of God.
And it was this idea that proved so important to the distinctive approach to politics and political theology of Fr. Valentin Sventsitsky, the early Bulgakov and Vladimir Ern, and the Christian Brotherhood of Struggle.[^5] For it allowed Solovyov and those influenced by him to see even secular movements for freedom and justice as parts of this God-human historical process towards the coming of the Kingdom of God. Even if the socialists were mostly atheists, for example, one could see that their political principles, if implemented, would be genuine advancements towards the ways of relating to one another characteristic of the ideals of Christian love. Thus, Christians could, and ought to, support such movements, even while disagreeing with the explicit religious beliefs of many of their members. As George F. Putnam puts it, discussing Solovyov's influence on Sergius Bulgakov, Solovyov showed that "the struggles of secular reformers and revolutionaries were necessary to the spiritualization of man. This made it possible for the religious man to accept and support their work, even though its purveyors attacked Christianity and used violent means contrary to its spirit."[^6]
This strikes me as a very interesting and attractive approach, which isn't to say it doesn't raise distinctive problems and questions. In future posts, I hope to say more in particular about the way St. Valentin Sventsitsky develops the approach and responds to potential worries.
[1] "God, the Divine Basis of Creation and Man," in *A Solovyov Anthology*, ed. S. Frank, p. 35.
[2] *ibid.*
[3] QThal. 60.2.
[4] Ambiguum 7, emphasis added.
[5] For a little more on the context of the Christian Brotherhood of Struggle, see en.substack.com/pub/onancientpaths/p/three-captivating-ideas-1
[6] *Russian Alternatives to Marxism: Christian Socialism and Idealistic Liberalism in Twentieth-Century Russia*, pp. 11-12.
Excellent post! Really helpful on Solovyov.