Background
Rozanov, Vasiiii Vasil’evich was born on April 20, 1856 in Vetluga, Russia.
critic essayist Religious philosopher
Rozanov, Vasiiii Vasil’evich was born on April 20, 1856 in Vetluga, Russia.
Moscow University.
Taught in provincial secondary schools before assuming a low-level government post in St Petersburg in 1893. First won broad attention as a writer in 1891 with his critical study of Dostoevsky, entitled Legendu o Velikom inkvizitore [The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor]. In 1899 he retired and devoted himself exclusively to writing.
In addition to his several books, he was a frequent contributor of controversial essays on philosophical, religious and political themes to the newspapers and reviews of the day, particularly those of conservative orientation.
Rozanov, Religiia kul'tura, Moscow, pp. 3-16. Poggioli, Renato (1962) Rozanov, New York: Hilary House. Stammler, Heinrich A. (1984) Vasilij Vasil’evic Rozanov als Philosoph, Giessen: Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag. Zenkovsky, V. V. (1953) A History of Russian Philosophy, 2 vols, trans. George L. Kline, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Rozanov's first and only purely philosophical book, O ponintanii (1886), was an attempt to reconcile scientific and religious cognition in a unified theory. His writings thereafter ranged over the whole field of contemporary culture and were prized by many not only for their controversial and original views but for the spontaneity and arresting imagery of their aphoristic style. His influence extended to many Russian writers and thinkers, including Dmitrii Mcrezhkovskii, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Pavel Florensky. Rozanov's developed philosophical outlook, expressed in the books published from 1911 until his death, may be described as a form of mystical theism in which sexuality is glorified. Man is linked with the divine through his generative capacity, according to Rozanov, who called sexuality man's 'noumenal aspect’, as contrasted with the merely phenomenal being of his other qualities. Without renouncing Russian Orthodoxy, Rozanov none the less criticized Christianity severely for its denial of the flesh. He favoured the religious outlook of the Old Testament, which he interpreted as accepting the ‘sanctity’ of biological forces.