The idea of the church as the “Russian idea” in Russian religious philosophy between the late 19th and early 20th centuries

This article analyses the content of the idea of the church as it was interpreted by such representatives of Russian religious philosophy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as N. F. Fyodorov, E. N. Trubetskoy and P. A. Florensky. The author establishes a point that the idea of the church formulated by these philosophers can be seen as the focal point of Russian religious culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The article demonstrates that such a narrowly defined form of life as church service conveyed the idea of universal unity embedded in Russian philosophy, as well as the notion of the Holy Trinity critical for Russian Orthodox culture. The author comes to the conclusion that the idea of the church formulated by Russian religious philosophers may be interpreted as the means of implementing the metaphysical meaning of the “Russian idea”, that is the idea of spiritual and mental transfiguration of an individual’s life on the basis of the values of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity.