Divine Onomatology

The book considers works of imyaslavians Sergei Bulgakov, Aleksei Losev and Pavel Florensky, symbolists Vyacheslav Ivanov and Ernst Cassirer, and Jacques Derrida by focusing on their radically novel conceptions of names, especially the Name of God. It maintains that combined, yet wholly independent, efforts of these thinkers delineate a new field of inquiry, called here divine onomatology. It s roots are in Plato s search for a name true and correct; foundation in Plotinus and Proclus concepts of names, essence/energy division of the Greek Fathers, divine names in Dionysius, and deification in Palamas that lead to radical reevaluations of divine naming presented in Florensky s synergy, Bulgakov s sophiology, Losev s onomatological dialectics of other-being-ness, Ivanov s symbolic theurgy, Cassirer s theory of symbolic naming, and Derrida s breakthrough toward the beyond of the name in the name. By introducing imyaslavian approach to history of divine naming (much of it for the first time in English translation) to the western academic community, this book establishes a continuity of treating names from Plato to the present.