The Way Out For Russia's Modernization In The Perspective Of Religious Philosophers Of Silver Age

In the renaissance of religious philosophy of Russia from the end of 19th to the early 20th century, the thinkers, such as Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, Lev Isaakovich Shestov and C. Frank, arose and represented a trend of thought, which was known as "Religious Philosophy of Silver Age". Facing the chaos of time, the transition of era, the spiritual crisis and the nihility of values, these religious philosophers of Silver Age attempted to find a special way out for the modernization of Russia. In their theoretical exploration, most of these thinkers have experienced the internal transition from Marxism to Theological Utopianism. In their early explorations, they turned to Marxism, and by grafting Marxism to traditional Russian culture, then they proposed such as Personalism Socialism, Humanitarian Socialism, Christian Socialism, as possible ways out for Russia's modernization. In their opinion, this type of grafting was reasonable, not only complying with Marxism, but also developing Marxism "reasonably". With the development of their thinking, especially after the February Revolution and the October Revolution, these thinkers began to question Marxism and the Soviet's practice of socialism, which finally led to the transition of the theory explorations of these religious philosophers in Silver Age. Continuing their exploration after the transition, they turned to Theological Utopianism, and conceived various theological utopian systems, which, generally speaking, are nothing but colorful utopian paintings on the traditional Christian canvas, with more or less emphasis from all angles on spiritual value of man, deity-man theory and eschatology, and with the same highlight on the union and merge of churches. We should realize that the early Marxism or the later Theological Utopianism are both founded on the theoretical explorations for the Modernization of Russia. These religious philosophers of Silver Age did not simply abandon Marxism, though they all experienced the fever, the grafting, the questioning and the giving up of Marxism. They all absorbed the principles of Marxism, such as the alienation theory, the criticism of capitalism, the cherishment for humanity and the pursuit of better human future, to their own theories in their explorations. At the same time, these religious philosophers of Silver Age neither constructed certain philosophical or theological system by criticizing other theories or practices, nor got restricted in theoretical explorations superficially. Instead, their explorations are much profound, with critical reflections and systematical reconstructions of all former modes of modernization.