Ivan Ilyin 1883 – 1954
Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin was a Russian Orthodox religious philosopher, legal theorist, and political thinker and one of the most consequential conservative voices of the Russian emigration. After studies under Husserl in Germany and a brief academic career in Moscow, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1922 with the Philosophers' Ship and settled first in Berlin and finally near Zurich. His Philosophy of Hegel as a Doctrine of the Concreteness of God and Man, On Resistance to Evil by Force, and Our Tasks articulated a philosophy of spiritual personhood, of the Christian state, and of the conditions of lawful authority that has shaped subsequent Russian conservative thought.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Russian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Ivan Ilyin:
“Spirit is the deepest substance of the human person.”
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Attributed to Ivan Ilyin:
“Christian conservatism is the love of inheritance, not the fear of change.”
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Attributed to Ivan Ilyin:
“Every authentic culture rests on a religious foundation.”
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Attributed to Ivan Ilyin:
“Resistance to evil is sometimes a moral duty, even when it must use force.”
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Attributed to Ivan Ilyin:
“Russia is the home of the heart that has not yet found its full voice.”