The concept of theurgic creativity by Vladimir Solovyov and Vyacheslav Ivanov

The philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov is considered from the perspective of its existential value. He understood his philosophy as a philosophy of life intended to give a man the highest meaning of his existence rather than as a philosophy of the school of thought. For Solovyov, the highest meaning of human existence consists in pursuing the matter of nature that is to overcome the disunified empirical state and ascend to the world of positive all-unity. The paper introduces and explains the concept of individual theurgy by Solovyov manifested in two fundamental varieties, i.e. the path of love and the path of art both available to everyone. Solovyov’s theory of art is analyzed as the basic theurgic principle that implies the creation of beauty as the spiritualization and idealization of the empirical world. Then Solovyov’s theurgic art is revised in the theory of artistic creativity developed by the Russian poet Vyacheslav Ivanov. This theory is closely related to the anthropological teaching of Ivanov where the theurgic artist is an anthropological ideal. The study notes that the basic aspects of Ivanov’s theory of art are semantically interconnected and divide art into two types: violent and transformative or non-violent and transfigurative. Genuinely theurgic art is characterized by a non-violent transfiguration of reality. The study also examines the distinction between symbolic and theurgic arts by Ivanov. The research shows that the achievement of the stage of theurgic art requires the spiritual transformation of the artist that raises him to the level of the spiritual beings of the noumenal world. A person who has reached the stage of theurgic art is defined by Ivanov as a superhuman being in the specific spiritual sense that is a part of this concept from the standpoint of the Russian philosophy of all-unity.