Vasily Rozanov's true Christianity and its origins in Russian culture

The article proves that despite the many works that criticized the gospels and Christian doctrine Vasily Rozanov had a holistic view of true Christianity, which he contrasted with the dogmatic doctrine of the church. To describe Rozanov’s views the author compares them with the tradition of searching for true Christianity in the Russian culture of the 19th century, focusing on the works of Pyotr Chaadaev and Fyodor Dostoevsky. As well as Rozanov these thinkers saw the essence of Christianity in demonstrating the way in which mankind can create “heaven on earth”, achieve the perfection of earthly life, which, in particular, is manifested in the fact that individuals acquire a mystical ability to influence the world. The article reveals a similarity in the understanding of God and immortality by Rozanov, Chaadaev, and Dostoevsky: God is the merged unity of all people, and immortality is the eternity and infinity of earthly life, which is not interrupted but only transformed by death.