A Conference in Moscow Discusses Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev’s Heritage for the Humanities
One of the everlasting issues of European culture, i.e., the relationship between faith and reason, and faith and knowledge, was the primary focus of the 11th annual Averitnsev Lectures. This topic is now being addressed anew in academic circles, including our own. Sergey Sergeevich Averintsev, both as a personality and as a scholar, represents a unique solution to this question, inheriting the traditions of Russian religious-philosophical thought.
The conference featured four round table discussions. The first day’s activities were hosted by the Russian State University for the Humanities.
The following people took part in the round table on "Sergey Averintsev and the 'New Renaissance' in Humanitarian Science in the Late USSR of the 1960s–1970s": Yuri Popov, who served as the head of the philosophy editorial office of the "Great Russian Encyclopedia" from 1998 to 2017 and editor-compiler of the "Christianity" encyclopedia. Popov is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Igor Kondakov (PhD and Candidate of Philological Sciences), who is a professor of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at the Faculty of Cultural Studies of RSUH (Russian State University for the Humanities); Yana Pantueva (Candidate of Philological Sciences), who is a Senior Lecturer at SFI; Yulij Asoyan (Candidate of Philosophical Sciences), a Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of Culture at the Faculty of Cultural Studies of RSUH. The round table was moderated by Doctor of Historical Sciences Professor Galina Zvereva, who is Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Studies and Head of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at RGGU, and Alexander Kopirovsky (Candidate in Pedagogy), who is the Rector of SFI.
Yuri Popov and Igor Kondakov spoke on the state of affairs in academic study of the humanities in the 1960s.
"Averintsev thought in terms of grand epochs and operated within a broad cultural context. Few people at that time knew so many ancient and modern languages. He was one of the first to include religious themes in his texts alongside philosophy, science, and poetry. At a moment when many of us were on the other side of the Iron Curtain, he was expanding the boundaries of space and time," — noted Igor Kondakov.
"Here's a picture of humanities in the 1960s and 1970s: lecture halls filled to capacity and people practically fighting to get into lectures by figures like Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev. In those times of religious prohibition people turned to humanities scholars in search of the meaning of life," said Yana Pantueva.
Participants in the round table on "Professional Academics and Non-Professional Thinking: The Averintsev Case" were: Prof Galina Zvereva (DHis), who is Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Studies and Head of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at RGGU; Alexander Kopirovsky (Candidate in Pedagogy), Rector of St. Philaret's Institute (SFI); Prof Alexander Markov (PhD in Philology) from the Department of Cinema and Contemporary Art, Faculty of Art History, RGGU; Viktor Granovsky (Candidate of Philosophy), Senior Lecturer at SFI; Boris Reifman (Candidate of Cultural Studies), Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of Culture, Faculty of Cultural Studies, RGGU. The session was moderated by: Lidia Kroshkina (Candidate of Cultural Studies), Senior Lecturer at RGGU and SFI, and Olga Borisova (Candidate of Philosophy), Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Pedagogy of Tver State University.
The second day of the conference took place at St. Philaret's Institute. Participants in the round table on "Humanitarian Knowledge and the Experience of Overcoming Totalitarianism" included: Prof Galina Zvereva (DHis), who is Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Studies and Head of the Department of History and Theory of Culture at RGGU; Yulia Balakshina (PhD Philology), Professor at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and SFI; Konstantin Obozny (Candidate of History), Dean of the Faculty of History and Head of the Department of Church and Social History at SFI; Viktoriya Faybyshenko (Candidate of Philosophy), Senior Lecturer at SFI; Yulia Shtonda (Candidate of Philology), Senior Lecturer at SFI.
The participants discussed how we conceive freedom within the humanities, prospects for methodological freedom, and the culture of dissent.
The final conference round table was entitled “‘Knowledge Informed by Faith’ as a Problem”. Participants discussed the following questions:
- What is faith for an academic and what is knowledge for a faithful Christian?
- The search for a “new positive theory” of knowledge.
Participants who spoke at the round table were: Svetlana Konacheva (PhD), Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Contemporary Problems of Philosophy at RGGU; Tatiana Panchenko (Candidate of Philosophy), independent researcher; Ekaterina Polyakova (Candidate of Philology), Senior Lecturer at SFI; Aleksey Lyzlov (Candidate of Psychology), Senior Lecturer at the Department of Contemporary Problems of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy; Alexander Koltsov (Candidate of Philosophy), Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University's Faculty of Theology. The conversation was led by: Viktor Granovsky (Candidate of Philosophy), Senior Lecturer at SFI; Sofia Androsenko, SFI staff member and PhD student at Moscow State University.
The conference was organised by SFI and RGGU.
