Abstract:

At the end of the nineteenth century there was fascination abroad among Russian intellectuals for all things Western, including Western European religious thought. A recent commentator, David Bethea, gives this reason for the fascination. In reference to the ascendant ultramontane Roman Catholicism of the day, he writes: ‘The ascetic, flesh-despising aspects of Catholicism were bound to appeal—by their very novelty—to an Orthodox tradition that viewed matter as spirit-bearing.’

Author: Duncan Reid