The subject of this research is the concept of sobornost in the philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev. On the basis of the dialectical method, such stages of the development of sobornost are distinguished as being, essence, and concept. The actualization of sobornost arises in the church community, the secular community, the church-secular community. The thesis in the formation of the category of sobornost at the level of its beingness is the church community in the maxims of salvation. The essential stage in the formation of sobornost is the secular community, where sobornost is revealed as a collection, collectivity. Ideas of creativity are develop, and a split and disunity are characteristic. The resolution of the Divine Trinity, human and cosmic community in freedom and love – this is the state of the conceptual level of sobornost in the church-secular community, where salvation and creativity are united. It can be concluded that sobornost is present in all designated types of community, being in dialectical development.
Franc Grivec (1878 – 1963), a pioneer in systematic research of Eastern Christianity in Slovenian higher education, was not a political thinker but a theologian and historian. However, some ecclesiological and historical themes he studied answered the pressing social questions of his time. In Grivec’s works, it is possible to identify a certain Christian social vision that opposes both socialism and liberal capitalism. The first core of Grivec’s social vision is unity among Christians under the auspices of the Catholic Church, where the thought of the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (1853 – 1900) is highlighted. The second core is the national consciousness among Slovenians and other Slavs, which acts as a defense mechanism against the socialist revolution. In Grivec’s social vision, Russia occupies a negative and at the same time positive starting point for reflection – based on the revolution carried out and at the same time experiences in preventing its spread and a preserved sense of the search for truth. The Slovenian author places the two conceptual cores (Christian unity and national consciousness) within the example of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius. In this way, he establishes a mythical idea of the medieval period, thus approaching the theory of the “New Middle Ages” of the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874 – 1948).
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