The myth theology of priest Pavel Florensky

The article discusses the “theology of myth” of fr. Pavel Florensky as a non-trivial philosophical and theological approach to understanding the ontology of myth and its basic functions in culture. The heuristic nature of this concept is shown, in which two aspects of mythogenesis are combined: linguistic and mystical. Myth-making in culture is immanently conditioned by the “magical” nature of the word and language - that is, its ability to create human reality; thanks to this, the word and symbol formalize the mystical comprehension of the world in its “kinship” with man. On the other hand, the myth is the outer “shell” of the cult, which “peels off” from it, profanes and perishes. This sets the cyclical nature of the existence of cultural forms as the unfolding of a cult in historical time. This approach to understanding the myth allowed fr. Pavel Florensky to point out the essential continuity between pagan and Christian cult, in which the former acts as a prototype, and the latter as the fulfillment of the revelation that humanity expects.