Ivan Lopukhin and the Development of Mystical Historiosophy in Late Eighteenth-Century Russia Cover Image

Ivan Lopukhin and the Development of Mystical Historiosophy in Late Eighteenth-Century Russia
Ivan Lopukhin and the Development of Mystical Historiosophy in Late Eighteenth-Century Russia

Author(s): Andreas Berg
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institutul de Cercetări Socio-Umane Gheorghe Şincai al Academiei Române
Keywords: Russian enlightenment; mystical thought; reason; historiosophy; human agency; divinity

Summary/Abstract: In the present study, the author argues that accounts of the development of Russian historiography during the Russian enlightenment need to take into greater consideration the contribution of mystical thought to the conceptualisation of history as an autonomous human construct. In the first part he discusses some challenges faced by a rationalistic approach to the study of history. In the second part he proposes the mystical thought of a noted Russian Rosicrucian thinker Ivan Vladimirovich Lopukhin (1756-1816) and suggests that his attempt to relate historical and divine realities was focused on enhancing human agency in its historical and ontological terms. In the third part he draws some implications stemming from his reconsideration of the interrelationship between mysticism and history.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 11
  • Page Range: 44 - 57
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English