Lossky, Vladimir (1903–1958)

PAUL GAVRILYUK

Together with Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky is one of the main architects of the turn to the Greek fathers in recent Russian Orthodox theology. Born into the family of a well-known philosopher-intuitivist, Nicholas Lossky, Vladimir spent his child­hood and began his university education in St. Petersburg, Russia. Expelled from the Soviet Union in 1922, the Lossky fam­ily first settled in Prague (1922–4) and then moved to Paris, where Vladimir Lossky was to spend the rest of his life. In Paris Lossky continued his education at the Sorbonne (1924–7), studying the his­tory of western medieval philosophy under the supervision of Etienne Gilson. During this period Lossky developed what would become a lifelong interest in the mystical theology of Meister Eckhart, eventually resulting in a doctoral thesis posthumously published in French under the title Theologie negative et connaissance de Dieu chezMaitre Eckhart (1960). In 1928 Lossky became a member of the Brother­hood of St. Photius, a group which pro­moted the Orthodox Christian witness in Europe.

In the 1930s Lossky became involved in the debate over Sergius Bulgakov’s Sophiology. As an intellectual of a younger generation, Lossky viewed the heritage of religious idealism, especially Vladimir Soloviev and the writers of the Silver Age, with suspicion. To the end of his life, Lossky would remain one of the most outspoken critics of Bulgakov’s sys­tem. In his essay The Sophia Debate (1935, original in Russian), Lossky faulted Bulgakov for converting Christian theism into a pantheistic system, for breaking down the fundamental ontological distinc­tion between Creator and creation, for con­fusing nature and person in God, and for a “Gnostic” lack of apophatic reserve when speaking about the immanent Trinity. The condemnation of Bulgakov’s system issued by the Russian Orthodox Church was based to a large degree upon Lossky’s summary report.

Lossky’s brief involvement with the French resistance movement is reflected in his autobiographic essay Sept jours sur les routes de France (1940). After the war Lossky taught, among other places, in the newly founded Institute of St. Dionysius the Areopagite. His Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (appearing first in French, 1944) is regarded as a classic expo­sition of Orthodox apophaticism. Using the work of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopa- gite as his starting point, Lossky argues that apophatic theology is more than a corrective to Kataphatic theology, that negative theology is rather a contemplative practice intended to purify the human mind from the idolatry of concepts with the purpose of bringing the human knower into union with God. The book also defends the Palamite essence-energies distinction in God against its Roman Cath­olic critics.

Lossky continued to pursue the question of the knowability of God and related epis­temological problems in his lectures at the Sorbonne (posthumously published as The Vision of God, French original in 1962) and other essays (which became part of two collections: In the Image and Likeness of God, French original in 1967, and Orthodox Theology: An Introduction, English transla­tion in 1978). Lossky was convinced that the dogma of filioque was the root cause of the division between the East and the West. Lossky’s overarching “personalism” (the claim that persons are ineffable,

unobjectifiable agents, irreducible to

common nature) has received continuing attention in the works of Rowan Williams, John Zizioulas, Aristotle Papanikolaou, and others.

SEE ALSO: Apophaticism; Bulgakov, Sergius (Sergei) (1871–1944); Florovsky, Georges V. (1893–1979); St. Dionysius the Areopagite; Sophiology

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Clement, O. (1959) “Vladimir Lossky, un theologien de la personne et du St. Esprit,” Messager de L’Exarchat du Patriarche russe en europe occidentale, 30, 1: 137–206.

Lossky, V. (1997) In the Image and Likeness of God. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Lossky, V. (1997) The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Lossky, V. (1997) The Vision of God. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

Lossky, V. (2001) Orthodox Theology: An Introduction. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.