Lately I've been involved in the exciting process of forming my own philosophy and world view. Though I describe myself as a pagan I have to admit that a good number of the people who have captured my attention with certain powerful ideas have been Christian, particularly Russian Orthodox Christians who had trouble with being labeled unorthodox. Since this is a Christian forum I thought I would mention a few of them and try get some discussion started about their thought.
Here we go:
1. I find myself fascinated with Russian Cosmism, a movement of Russian intellectuals who brought to discussion many of the same ideas that would later form the basis of modern Transhumanism. One of the fathers and grand poobas of the whole movement was a Christian philosopher by the name of Nikolai Federov. It was his understanding that the Biblical resurrection of the body would take place but that it would be a scientific accomplishment rather than a supernatural occurrence. That humans would eventually develop the technology to resurrect their own parents, who would in turn resurrect their parents, and so on until we have the general resurrection of all our ancestors. He was also optimistic that we could come up with a way to live indefinitely as well. Being a big fan of astronomy and the possibility of space exploration and colonization he thought we could have these newly resurrected ancestors colonize the rest of the galaxy. He called this goal of resurrection of the ancestors "the common task of humanity."
2. Sergei Bulgakov. A Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher. and economist. One of the most influential figures in the Russian Sophiological movement which I have a lot of respect for. Bulgakov called for the deification of all matter /creation and stressed that salvation wasn't for man alone but for all of nature. The whole world was to become an icon of God or better yet eucharist - body of the Godman. The world would then become transparent to the light of the divine Sophia.
He can even make something as boring as economics interesting
"
Here we go:
1. I find myself fascinated with Russian Cosmism, a movement of Russian intellectuals who brought to discussion many of the same ideas that would later form the basis of modern Transhumanism. One of the fathers and grand poobas of the whole movement was a Christian philosopher by the name of Nikolai Federov. It was his understanding that the Biblical resurrection of the body would take place but that it would be a scientific accomplishment rather than a supernatural occurrence. That humans would eventually develop the technology to resurrect their own parents, who would in turn resurrect their parents, and so on until we have the general resurrection of all our ancestors. He was also optimistic that we could come up with a way to live indefinitely as well. Being a big fan of astronomy and the possibility of space exploration and colonization he thought we could have these newly resurrected ancestors colonize the rest of the galaxy. He called this goal of resurrection of the ancestors "the common task of humanity."
2. Sergei Bulgakov. A Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher. and economist. One of the most influential figures in the Russian Sophiological movement which I have a lot of respect for. Bulgakov called for the deification of all matter /creation and stressed that salvation wasn't for man alone but for all of nature. The whole world was to become an icon of God or better yet eucharist - body of the Godman. The world would then become transparent to the light of the divine Sophia.
He can even make something as boring as economics interesting
""The economy is the struggle of humanity with the elemental forces of nature with the aim of protecting and widening life, conquering and humanizing nature, transforming it into potential human organism. The economic process can therefore be described as follows: it expresses the striving to transform dead material, acting in accordance with mechanical necessity, into a living body with its organic coherence; in the end the aim of t his process can be defined as the transformation of the entire cosmic mechanism into a potential or actual organism, the transcension of necessity through freedom, mechanism through organism, causality through intentionality- that is, as the humanization of the nature...
The capacity for labor is one of the characteristics of a living being; it expresses the flame and sharpness of life. Only he lives fully who is capable of labor and who actually engages in labor...
Every living organism, as a body, as organized material, is inextricable connected with the universe as a whole, for the universe is a system of mutually connected and mutually penetrating forces, and one cannot disturb so much as a grain of sand, destroy so much as an atom, without, to one or another degree, disturbing the entire universe... For the universe is characterized not only by a general correspondence, a continuity and connectedness of the world of physical matter, but also by a certain relation between living and organized, matter and nonliving, or dead matter, or, in other words, between organic bodies and inanimate matter... And the general relation between the two fields is that the kingdom of life constantly intrudes on the kingdom of nonlife, seizes and carries away cold, lifeless matter with it's warm tentacles, and transforms it into living material , organizes dead matter into a living body...
Our bodies are like doors and windows into the universe, and all that enters us through these doors and windows become the object of our sensual perception and, in the process, becomes in a sense part of our body... All that is accessible to our cognition and that somehow affects our sensuality and thus enters the illuminated sphere of life, all of this, that is, potentially the entire universe, can become our body, its external, peripheral extension... Thus the entire universe apparently mechanical and lifeless, can become an organism through our act of realizing it to be an extension of our body... Life is in this sense the capacity to consume the world, whereas death is an exodus out of this world, the loss of capacity to communicate with it' finally, resurrection is a return into the world with a restoration of this capacity, though to an infinity expanded degree."
To be continued with other amazing Christian peeps like Solovyov (another Sophiologist and Cosmist) as well as some non-Russian dudes as well like Jakob Boehme and Alfred North Whitehead! Maybe even a Frenchman or two including Teilhard de Chardin and his cool idea of Omegapoint and Noosphere (the later borrowed from a Russian Cosmist though). The capacity for labor is one of the characteristics of a living being; it expresses the flame and sharpness of life. Only he lives fully who is capable of labor and who actually engages in labor...
Every living organism, as a body, as organized material, is inextricable connected with the universe as a whole, for the universe is a system of mutually connected and mutually penetrating forces, and one cannot disturb so much as a grain of sand, destroy so much as an atom, without, to one or another degree, disturbing the entire universe... For the universe is characterized not only by a general correspondence, a continuity and connectedness of the world of physical matter, but also by a certain relation between living and organized, matter and nonliving, or dead matter, or, in other words, between organic bodies and inanimate matter... And the general relation between the two fields is that the kingdom of life constantly intrudes on the kingdom of nonlife, seizes and carries away cold, lifeless matter with it's warm tentacles, and transforms it into living material , organizes dead matter into a living body...
Our bodies are like doors and windows into the universe, and all that enters us through these doors and windows become the object of our sensual perception and, in the process, becomes in a sense part of our body... All that is accessible to our cognition and that somehow affects our sensuality and thus enters the illuminated sphere of life, all of this, that is, potentially the entire universe, can become our body, its external, peripheral extension... Thus the entire universe apparently mechanical and lifeless, can become an organism through our act of realizing it to be an extension of our body... Life is in this sense the capacity to consume the world, whereas death is an exodus out of this world, the loss of capacity to communicate with it' finally, resurrection is a return into the world with a restoration of this capacity, though to an infinity expanded degree."
