Sobornost

Sobornost (Russian: Собо́рность; IPA: [sɐˈbornəstʲ] "Spiritual community of many jointly living people") is a term coined by the early Slavophiles, Ivan Kireevsky and Aleksey Khomyakov, to underline the need for cooperation between people at the expense of individualism on the basis that the opposing groups focus on what is common between them. Khomyakov believed the West was progressively losing its unity. According to Khomyakov this stemmed from the West embracing Aristotle and his defining individualism; whereas Kireevsky believed that Hegel and Aristotle represented the same ideal of unity. Khomyakov and Kireevsky originally used the term sobor to designate cooperation within the Russian obshchina, united by a set of common convictions and Orthodox Christian values, as opposed to the cult of individualism in the West.

Philosophy

As a philosophical term, it was used by Nikolai Lossky and other 20th-century Russian thinkers to refer to a middle way of co-operation between several opposing ideas. This was based on Hegel's "dialectic triad"—thesis, antithesis, synthesis—though, in Russian philosophy, it would be considered an oversimplification of Hegel. It influenced both Khomyakov and Kireevsky, who expressed the idea as organic or spontaneous order.

Sobornost (journal)

Sobornost is a theological journal published by the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius. It publishes articles on "the life and thought of the Eastern Churches and their relationship with Western Christendom." In 1979, Sobornost incorporated the Eastern Churches Review.

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