Reason in the Garden of Gethsemane: Pavel Florensky and the Debate about Onto‐theology and Fideism

Abstract

This article examines Pavel A. Florensky's conception of Truth in relation to contemporary discussions about onto‐theology and fideism. It first investigates the paradigm changes that occurred between modernity and postmodernity, focussing on the philosophical and theological significance of the law of identity and the law of sufficient reason in Leibniz, Kant, and Heidegger. It then analyses Florensky's own contribution to the current debate about faith and reason. The Russian thinker proposes a creative synthesis between the law of identity and the law of sufficient reason, which is rooted in the doctrine of the Trinity. The resulting conception of Truth as intuition‐discursion articulates a ‘third way’ aimed at transcending the problematic dichotomy between onto‐theology and fideism.