“Grammar of Dissent”: conceptualization of religious faith in the works of J. H. Newman and S. L. Frank

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze S.L. Frank’s reception of J.H. Newman's ideas. It is shown that, despite a certain typological similarity, the approaches of Frank and Newman diverged in the issue of philosophical conceptualization of religious faith. While the “assent” — as the acceptance of dogmatic truths through “religious imagination” and an act of non-abstract “personal knowledge” — is the key category for Newman, the concept of mystical “religious experience” which is supra-rational and supersensual and provides its own special certainty is the key category for Frank. It is noted that the mutual contrast of Newman’s and Frank’s approaches reflects the difference between the Western and Eastern Christian theological traditions, which in turn can be correlated with the specificities of Aristotelian and Platonic philosophical principles. It is noted as well that in the works of the Russian philosopher, objections to “modernism” are not associated with the name of Newman, however, in Frank's early articles there is criticism of the “new religious consciousness” of D.S. Merezhkovsky. Despite the difference in approaches to the conceptualization of faith, the closeness of Newman’s and Frank’s positions is revealed in the fact that the works of both thinkers present Christian philosophical apologetics.