Dialogue between V. S. Solovyov and A. A. Kireev on the forms and character of Christian unity
The idea of Christian unity occupied the minds of many Russian intellectuals. The most famous were the treatises of V. S. Solovyov which initiated a discussion in both Russian and Western European intellectual circles. One of the publicists who began to argue with Solovyov was the Slavophil A. A. Kireev. Both thinkers wanted to overcome the existing contradictions in the European society by orgzanizing an ecumenical church. Kireev supported the traditional position of Slavophiles who believed that all Russian Christians would agree with the unity of the church if the only first 7 ecumenical councils articles of faith were recognized to be true, therefore he insisted on the restoration of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of the West. Solovyov proposed a theocratic project of the eternal spiritual Rome as the center of the Christian world. Thus he urged the Russian people to be the true Third Rome which would reconcile and unite the first two ones into a single whole. This article reveals the main aspects of the thinkers’ dialogue dealt with the ways and character of Christian unity on the basis of their correspondence, journalistic articles, as well as previously unknown archival materials. The author shows that the idea of Russian mission to restore the unity of the Christian world was the central idea in Russian religious philosophy of the 19th century.