Transcendence as antinomic friendship : metamodern foreshadowings in Pavel Florenskij’s vision of the world

Abstract

Pavel Florenskij, b. 1882, d. 1937, a mathematician and a theologian, an engineer and a philosopher, a linguist, art critic, and a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church. An opinionated fellow, Florenskij was not one to shy away from the pressing issues of his time both within the Church as well as within society at large. His worldview blends in a most original way Platonic and Kantian Idealism with Orthodox ecclesiology, Cantorian mathematics and applied physics, Russian culture, and, most of all, a plea to deep meaningful friendships. One would not expect to find behind such a bold worldview a reserved and soft-spoken man. His peers described him as someone whose eyes “avoided looking at you, cast down, looking inwards, contemplative.” They even perceived him as “somewhat monastic in his mannerisms.”1 In a few words, Florenskij was quite simply a quiet man with a great mind, a natural flair for interdisciplinarity, and an insatiable desire for deep meaningful friendships.