Vladimir Lossky

Bio: Vladimir Lossky is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mysticism & Revelation. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 9 publications receiving 561 citations.

The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church

Abstract: In this classic study of Orthodox theology, Losky states that 'in a certain sense, all theology is mystical, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery: the data of revelation, the eastern tradition has never nade a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology, between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed by the Church. ' The term 'mystical theology', denotes the realm of human experience, that which is accessible yet inaccessible, those things understood yet surpassing all knowledge.

The meaning of icons

Abstract: The classic work on the techniques, language and interpretation of icons in the context of theology and faith. Commentary and analysis of the main types of icons. Lavishly illustrated, with 160 pages of text with drawings, 13 b/w and 51 color plates.

The vision of God

Abstract: In this volume, Vladimir Lossky studies the meaning of the vision of God and its impact on the life and thought of the Church from its earliest days to the synthesis of St Gregory Palamas and those who followed him (14th century), a vision which is more than metaphor, but the purpose and goal of the Christian life

The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory

Abstract: Using as data the events and persons commemorated in the United States Capitol, this inquiry demonstrates how the significance of historical events changes from one generation to the next according to a changing infrastructure of societal problems and needs. Before the Civil War, two historical periods, colonization and revolution, produced the only events and heroes on whose commemoration a deeply divided Congress could agree. Once the unity of the nation was brought about by force of arms, the pattern of commemoration changed. Belated recognition was given to the events and heroes of the postrevolutionary period and to outstanding regional, as opposed to national, figures. The commemoration of office incumbency was superimposed on that of extraordinary military and political achievement, thus celebrating the stable institutional structures into which the charisma of the nation's founders finally became routinized. These and other changes in the Capitol's commemorative symbolism reflect the Civil War's solution to the antebellum problems of integration and pattern maintenance. The bearing of these findings on different theories of collective memory is discussed.

Aristotle East and West : metaphysics and the division of Christendom

Abstract: This book traces the development of conceptions of God and the relationship between God's being and activity from Aristotle, through the pagan Neoplatonists, to thinkers such as Augustine, Boethius and Aquinas (in the West) and Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas (in the East). The result is a comparative history of philosophical thought in the two halves of Christendom, providing a philosophical backdrop to the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.

From Butler to Thornton: A Typology of Conflicting Readings of the Two Books of Scripture and Nature in the Church of England from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century

Abstract: summary): This dissertation studies the persistence within modern Anglicanism of (a) a classical "high view" of Scripture as the exemplar of creation, (b) the apologetic and phenomenological advantages of this view in the wake of Joseph Butler (1692-1752) due to (c) the kind of theodicy the Bible displays in contrast to more rationalistic proposals from deism to panentheism. (d) Finally, the view of theodicy and Scripture one takes will determine whether or not one reads the two books of Scripture and nature figurally. The "high view" was undercut by nineteenth-century sectarian polemics between Protestants and Tractarians. Yet a minority kept this tradition alive. Lionel Thornton (18841960) is important to this project because he escaped from Tractarian and Protestant dead ends. The dissertation lays out this broader Anglican story and then focuses on Thornton, for whose work I provide historical context and a detailed examination. I first analyze his early, philosophical-theological period where he defended an incarnational theodicy over against the panentheistic-monist alternative: the "soul-making" theodicy. Thornton's theodicy led him to take up a realist ("Platonist") metaphysic and phenomenology in order to resist the monist tendency to smooth over antinomies in Scripture and nature, especially the problem of evil. Next, I look at the theodical alternatives through the lens of Thornton and his mentor, John Neville Figgis (1866-1919). In contrast to the Modernist monism of Charles Raven and others, Figgis and Thornton resisted the temptation to offer an etiology of evil. They concluded that grace overcame evil by reordering the past. The last chapter, therefore, looks at Thornton’s view of the temporal and cosmic reach of Christ's reordering work of "recapitulation", and the hermeneutical consequences that follow: namely, that having reunited creation by rescuing it from the dispersive power of evil, every trivial detail of creation came to reflect Christ. I argue that this way of handling the Bible follows consistently from a biblical, non-monist, theodicy. Furthermore, I believe Thornton's project shared a family resemblance to Butler's, for, like the latter's, it indicated that the rejection of figural reading implied methodological atheism. This larger argument touches on contemporary hermeneutical debates within the Church. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/90365

A theological enquiry into the processes of painting, with reference to the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion

Abstract: Starting points for this thesis were personal observations about how paintings may be responses to unplanned experiences, how they may take on a life of their own, and how meanings may emerge rather than be imposed. Questions arose about possible links with Christian concepts of revelation, and these were investigated with particular reference to the French Catholic philosopher and theologian Jean-Luc Marion. His concepts of saturated phenomena and their ‘excess’ of pure givenness were found to resonate with the actual experiences of painters but also to be critiqued by them. The core chapters discuss examples of paintings drawn from the three worlds of nature, ‘culture’, and persons, using an essentially threefold format: 1) presentation of selected paintings together with artists’ autobiographical material; 2) phenomenological analysis; and 3) theological interpretation. Underlying this approach is Marion’s approach to revelation by way of saturated phenomena, for whilst phenomenology alone cannot determine if actual revelation has taken place, it can investigate conditions for the possibility of revelation. Original features include the following: • Development of a ten-part typology of painting trajectories, reflecting diverse interactions between givenness and intentionality. • Identification of ‘nature’ as a saturated phenomenon from the evidence of painting processes; this is new evidence supporting an existing critique of Marion. • Discernment of saturated phenomena as ‘nested’, that is manifesting at different scales from the cosmic to the microscopic. • Application of the ‘visual-verbal chronotope’ to the complexities of painterly hermeneutics, with respect to biblical images. • Use of collaborative painting processes to enter the worlds of primary school children. • Identification of painting processes as saturated phenomena in their own right. • Realisation that Marion’s ‘givenness through saturated phenomena’ approach is complementary to the ‘imagination’ approach to revelation pursued by several British and North American theologians. It is suggested that the two approaches need each other. It is concluded that, phenomenologically, painters’ imaginative responses to givenness are common to both secular and theistic interpretations of revelation, and that through this commonality painting processes can contribute to addressing tensions between natural and revealed theology contribute to addressing tensions between natural and revealed theology.