Origen in Russian philosophy

Observing the history of reception of Origen’s intellectual heritage by Russian theologians and philosophers of the past few centuries, some key moments and figures are discernible. Those figures are Grigory Skovoroda (1722-1794), Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944), Nicolay Berdyaev (1874-1948) and George Florovsky (1893-1979). Those authors' significance for our outline is determined by (1) their key role in the evolution of Russian theological and philosophical thought and - at the same time - (2) by the fact that those authors’ own intellectual evolution and/or (3) their ideas’ reception by their contemporaries proceeded in close connection with the problem of Origen. So the process of reception of Origen’s intellectual heritage in Russia was substantially conditioned by the controversies raging around the key representatives of the so-called “Russian religious philosophy.”