Sobornost as a metaphysical category in the religious personalism of V.S. Solovyov, archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov and archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)
Authors: Semikopov D. V. , Lebedev I. A. , Aksenov А. V. 
Published: February 2022

Introduction. The article examines collegiality as a category of metaphysics in the religious and philosophical systems of V.S. Solovyov, prot. Sergei Bulgakov and archim. Sophrony (Sakharov). The analysis of the category of collegiality is carried out through the prism of personalism, as a basic concept for the metaphysical thinking of these authors.

Materials and Methods. The research material for the proposed article is monographs and scientific works of Russian researchers devoted to the problems of ecclesiology, sophiology and personalism. In this article, the methods of comparative analysis, historical and philosophical synthesis, generalization, abstraction and interpretation were used.

Results. The main problem posed in this article is the process of reception of the category of collegiality in Russian religious personalism. Sobornost is a term coined in the Slavophil tradition to express the concept of "unity in a plurality." In the metaphysics of total-unity and in neo-patristic synthesis, this category was perceived because it solved one of the basic questions: how are the personality correlated as the One, and the multitude, as the All-unity? This solution was formally different (for sophiology and neopatristic theology), but structurally identical. Sobornost, as unity in the multitude, realized in the Church, has as its prototype the Trinity of God. At the same time, the study states that collegiality was one of the main categories in which the general Sophian personalism of the Russian philosophical tradition was expressed. Sophia in this case means the nature of the Church, open to hypostasis, and through this hypostasis creates the possibility of Theosis of man. The research focuses on three personalities of the Russian intellectual tradition: the philosopher V.S. Soloviev and theologians Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov and Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov).

V.S. Soloviev, as the founder of the Russian metaphysics of All-Unity, uses the concept of God-manhood as a metaphysician of conciliarity, transmitting a personalistic impulse to subsequent philosophers. Late nightingale moves away from theistic personalism towards immanetism, but his disciples, among whom was Archpriest. Sergei Bulgakov, connect the category of conciliarity and the concept of God-manhood in sophiological ecclesiology. In this case, prot. Sergei Bulgakov substantiates his cathedral personalism on the basis of a trinitarian anthropological model. The tradition of neo-patristic synthesis, which is analyzed using the example of archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), refuses sophiological terminology, preserving the basic intuitions developed in Russian religious philosophy, returning them to the traditional theological field of meanings.

Discussion and Conclusion. In the Slavophil tradition, collegiality is understood historiosophically, in the metaphysics of All-Unity - sophiologically, and in the neopatristic synthesis - ecclesiologically. In the philosophy of the Silver Age and theology, personalism becomes one of the main themes, which leads to the transformation of the category of collegiality towards polyhypostasis as the main property of the nature of the Church. At the same time, we see the transformation of a certain basic personal intuition of collegiality, which comes from the church tradition and returns to it, enriched with philosophical meanings.