The issue of the substantial nature of the Absolute in 19th-century Russian theological academie stheism

This article reconstructs the model for understanding the substantial nature of the Absolute in Russian theological academies theism of the 19th century. Based on an analysis of works by representatives of the Moscow and Kazan Theological Academies (F.A. Golubinsky, V.D. Kudryavtsev‑Platonov, V.A. Snegirev, V.I. Nesmelov, and others), the study identifies key approaches to grounding the substantially of the Divine. Orthodox thinkers, drawing on the European philosophical tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Leibniz, Lotze, Ulrici), developed an original metaphysics of the Absolute that combines apophatic and cataphatic modes of knowing God. Special attention is paid to the critique of materialism and the mechanistic worldview, as well as to the substantiation of the inner activity of being and the unity of the world as consequences of the substantially of the Divine. The author concludes that the tradition of Russian theological academies produced a coherent model in which the Absolute is conceived as a transcendent spiritual principle that determines man’s personal existence and gives meaning to nature.