Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/507

Rh 7. The absolute religious authority of the church logically manifests itself as Catholicism. It is implicit in the idea of divine revelation that this revelation should be Catholic, that is to say, should be accepted always, everywhere, and by all. Traditionalism is the essential principle of belief in revelation. Messianism (Čaadaev, the slavophils, Solov'ev) is part of the very nature of objectivist ecclesiastical religion.

ITH the reforms of Peter there began in Russia the struggle of the rationalist enlightenment against the philosophy and the practice of the church. This struggle and its results form the substance of Russian literature, both philosophical and belletristic.

When we examine the long series of philosophers and writers, we are struck by the fact that independent Russian thought, even when friendly to religion, is hostile to ecclesiastical religion. With Čaadaev begins the phase of absolute negation of the church and its religion. The slavophils, too, criticise ecclesiastical religion, though somewhat less harshly. This is why Gogol's acceptance of Orthodoxy was so repugnant to his contemporaries, and why Bělinskii gave so lively an expression to his disapproval of Gogol's outlook. Bělinskii himself was averse, not only to ecclesiastical religion, but to religion in general. By way of Bakunin and Herzen we pass to Černyševskii and to nihilism, a doctrine in which antireligious negation secured its most characteristic form. This negation persists in the doctrines of contemporary Marxists and modern anarchists.

Among the westernisers we find a few thinkers friendly to religion, but on the whole in philosophical matters the westernisers agree with the nihilists. Mihailovskii, the progressive opponent of nihilism, is a noteworthy exception, Solov'ev defends religion, but opposes the church, though his hostility to the church is less marked than that of his great opponent Tolstoi.

Dostoevskii and Solov'ev have converted the successors of the nihilists. Dostoevskii's religious philosophy is definitely antinihilist.

Katkov, Pobědonoscev, and Tihomirov, outspokenly conservative and reactionary politicians, are unconditional defenders Rh