Deification and Asceticism

Abstract

Chapter 6 analyses Pavel Florensky’s The Pillar and Ground of the Truth (1914) in the context of Florensky’s still recent conversion to Christianity and of the tradition of contemplative mysticism (hesychasm) as expressed in the Philokalia and embodied in the saintly elders (startsy) of the Orthodox Church. It is structured around the idea of Florensky’s movement from outside the church to inside it. After setting out the place deification occupies within Pillar and Ground’s overarching thesis, the chapter considers the confessional aspect of the work as a construction of Florensky’s personal ascesis, explores its missional aspect through Florensky’s presentation of Orthodox asceticism in its relationship to deification, and finally analyses the polemical aspect of Pillar and Ground, its defence of Orthodox asceticism against its many detractors among the Russian intelligentsia, including the religious intelligentsia, of which Florensky had until recently himself been a member.