The concept of personality in Russian theological literature

Nikolai Gavryushin

pp. 135-144

in: Nikolaj Plotnikov (ed), The Discourse of personality in the Russian intellectual tradition, Studies in East European Thought 61, 2009.

Abstract

The term personality (ličnost') appears in Russian theological literature in the first half of the 19th century under the influence of secular writers indebted to Romantic ideology. Confronted to person it gradually acquires somatic connotations and generally means person inarnate, creative individuality. Asomatic attitude is reflected in Nesmelov. In soteriological perspective, as Sergius Stragorodskij suggests, personality should be subjectively abandonded in order to be finally glorified by God.