The Crucible of Doubts: Khomyakov, Dostoevsky, Solov'ev, In Search of Synthesis, Four 1929 Works - E. Skobtsova (mother Maria)

1st English Translation from Russian: The Crucible of Doubts comprises four separately published works in 1929 by E. Skobtsova nee Pilenko (1891-1945), -- as booklets on Khomyakov, Dostoevsky, Vl. Solov'ev, and a Journal Put' article. These are significant and rare to find texts by a major figure in Russian religio-philosophic thought. Elisaveta Skobtsova in 1932 became the celebrated Orthodox Christian nun, Mother Maria of Paris, perishing in Ravensbrueck concentration camp in 1945, and recently canonised as a Saint in 2004. Truly an extraordinary woman, a Symbolist poet from the Russian cultural Silver Age, S-R revolutionary, default brave mayor, emigre religio-philosophic creative mind, incisive in thought and intrepid, with her monastic praxis of Orthodox Action. She was an active WWII Resistance figure, sheltering Jews, and is recognised for such in WWII Holocaust memorials. Skobtsova is representative of that portion of the Russian Intelligentsia who blazed their path back to Christ and the Church. Our present title, The Crucible of Doubts is inspired by an apt saying by Dostoevsky: Through the crucible of doubts my hosanna hath passed. Each of these three Orthodox figures in the booklets of Skobtsova has left an lasting imprint upon Orthodox religious thought. The old head of the Slavophils, A. S. Khomyakov, brought into currency the concept of Sobornost', as authentic communality or catholicity, in answer to Papal pretensions. Skobtsova's booklet on Dostoevsky comprises an Essential Dostoevsky in a compactly concise compendium. Herein is the creative genius of Dostoevsky, all his uniquely pervasive insights, with his succint personified motifs and intensive themes, a rich fare for both student and scholar. With Skobtsova's Vl. Solov'ev booklet we meet with the radically significant religio-philosophic concept of God-manhood, a profound Christological long dead dogma resuscitated by Solov'ev, to form the basis of an authentic Christian anthropology. Vl. Solov'ev was a seminal figure within Russian religio-philosophic thought, inspiring also the current of Sophiology, religiously and aesthetically. Although God-manhood is the ideal, man-godhood its antithesis proves to be the ugly reality prophetically foreseen by Dostoevsky. Skobtsova's 1929 article in Journal Put', In Search of Synthesis, strives to provide meaningful an answer. A short eulogy of Mother Maria Skobtsova by the Russian religious philosopher, N. A. Berdyaev