The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

This work is an experience of meticulous reading of the introduction and the first two chapters of the fundamental “History of Russian Philosophy” (1948, 1950) by Vasily Zenkovsky (1881–1962) through the concept of “secularization”. Zenkovsky actively uses the concepts of “secularization” and “obmirshenie” as interchangeable (and emphasizes this by the proximity of word usage, within the same phrase). At the same time, it should be noted that his initial introduction of the concept of “secularization” and its interpretation are more than traditional — we are talking about the formation of a secular culture that is independent (auto­nomous) in relation to the Church and church consciousness. Russian Orthodoxy, however, already at this stage Zenkovsky introduces a significant change in interpretation, considering the Russian church schism as a good (in this perspective) event that freed Russian Orthodoxy from the temptation of the direct realization of the church-state ideal, theocratic in nature, and thus allowed Peter the Great to survive the reforms as blasphemy, but not as an apocalyptic event, to reject they have their proper place and status. The second aspect of Zenkovsky’s interpretation of secularization from the point of view of the history of Russian thought is its role in the concentration of church consciousness. But the most origi­nal is Zenkovsky’s introduction of the thesis of “secularization within the church consciousness”, which is expressed by the emergence and subsequent flourishing of “free theology” and religious philosophy, the main line of development of Russian philosophy, to which the author of “History …” belongs and refers himself.