Russian religious philosophers of the Silver Age on the role and functions of heresies in history

The Russian religious philosophers of the Silver Age created the original concept of heresies. Their interpretation of heresies is ambivalent: first, heresies are symptoms of spiritual quests and the self-knowledge of a free spirit; second, two heresies that helped fuel the heresies of the twentieth century were chiliasm (S. Bulgakov) and spontaneous nihilism (N. Berdyaev). The inspiration for these came from the teachings about the end of time. This article will consider the point of view on heresy in the context of the doctrine of the absolute and the philosophy of history by L. Karsavin, the metaphysics of the spirit by N. Berdyaev, and the concept of Christian socialism by S. Bulgakov. Their idea is that heresies testify to the development of Christian doctrine, i.e., to its illnesses and impasses. He writes heresies into the history of spiritual research. All these concepts were a kind of response to the challenge of history, which Friedrich Nietzsche called "the death of God." 1n Russian thought, it manifested itself in the form of ritual belief among the people and the deadening of official church theology. Church writers did not see any social problems or an impending revolution. Therefore, Russian writers and philosophers of the Silver Age took upon themselves the mission of warning about the crisis of the religious attitude towards the world. Russian religious philosophers were interested in the phenomenon of the deadening of the Christian spirit in official church Christianity, and their special task was to counter the process of the deadening of the spirit in 0rthodoxy. This caused the condemnation of all Russian religious philosophers in church circles. They were accused of heretical ideas of cosmism and sophiology. However, today they are the property of Russian religious culture; their works are included not only in university programs in philosophy and theology but also in the programs of theological seminaries.