Symbolism — Theurgy — Philosophy: On the Reception of Platonism in Russian Religious Philosophy of the Silver Age

This article represents the second stage of a study of the reception of Platonism in Russian religious thought and is devoted to the specifics of the appeal to Plato and Platonism in the 20th century, among thinkers of the so-called Silver Age, or Russian religious and philosophical Renaissance. It examines original interpretations of the figure of the ancient Greek thinker and his teachings in the works of V. S. Solovyov, the priest P. A. Florensky, and A. F. Losev (the monk Andronicus). A model of new Platonic “faces” is formulated: Plato the Symbolist (in the ultimate sense of a symbol), Plato the Exorcist (magician, theurgist, cleric), and Plato the Philosopher, who was the first to point to the “naked body” of philosophy, in which various “souls” can dwell — from patristic dogmatics to the postulates of Marxism- Leninism. The resulting interpretations of Platonism as symbolism, theurgy, and philosophy are compared with the interpretations found in the first study among representatives of 19th-century spiritual and academic philosophy. A conclusion is drawn regarding the importance of further study of the “Platonic paths” of Russian thought.