"Solovyov's book, I would dare say, IS the philosophy of love. Solovyov's arguments are engaging, to say the least: engaging the intellect, but also the depths of the reader's being. You can't say that about many books. The highest praise I can offer is that The Meaning of Love is the only modern book I know of that is worthy of its subject in every respect."-David Fiedler, Gnosis Magazine "The meaning and worth of love as a feeling is that it really forces us, with all our being, to acknowledge for another the same absolute significance that, because of the power of egoism, we are conscious of only in our own selves. Love is important, not only as one of our feelings but as the transfer of all our interest in life from ourselves to another, as the shifting of the very center of our lives...." "The meaning of human love, speaking generally, is the justification and salvation of individuality through the sacrifice of egoism. On this general basis we can also ... explain the meaning of sexual love" (Vladimir Solovyov) What is the meaning of love's intense emotion? Solovyov points to the spark of divinity that we see in another human being and shows how this "living ideal of Divine love, antecedent to our love, contains in itself the secret of the idealization of our love." According to Solovyov, love between men and women has a key role to play in the mystical transfiguration of the world. Love, which allows one person to find unconditional completion in another, becomes an evolutionary strategy for overcoming cosmic disintegration.

This original translation of a key prophetic and apocalyptic work, written by Russia's greatest philosopher at the end of the nineteenth century, characterizes in bold strokes and with astonishing prescience the challenges that mankind faces as 'progress' races to bring history to an end, calling us to vigilance and resistance to evil. The passing of more than a century since it was first written has not caused this remarkable text to lose any of its lustre; indeed, it is more relevant today than when it was first penned. Solovyov describes three main trends of his (and our) time: economic materialism, Tolstoyan abstract moralism, and the kind of hubris that has grown so rampant in contemporary society. For him, over a century ago, the first was all too present, and about to explode in the rise of the Communist State. A hollow moralism, or a 'meaning' with no core, was beginning to develop and would soon replace almost all vestiges of traditional values. As for hubris, greed, and evil well-disguised as good, this is the touchstone of society at the turn of the twentieth to the twenty-first century, and is precisely what Solovyov describes as the apocalyptic precursor of the Antichrist. Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century. He helped establish a rich tradition of Russian spirituality, inspiring a whole generation of thinkers, who followed his many-faceted spirit into diverse realms, bringing together philosophy, mysticism, theology, poetry, and powerful visionary experience with a trenchant social message. Solovyov was also a prophet, having been granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom.

This new revised edition of Vision in Action is a workbook for those involved in social creation -- in taking initiatives that influence the social environment in which we live and where one's ideas and actions can matter. The social world is a humanly created world. In developing any enterprise -- whether a small business, an educational center, service institution, co-op, or a volunteer program -- what and how we do something makes a difference. Against the background of the historical and organizational context of such initiatives, the authors have put together a workbook for people involved in the adventure of social creation. Chapters include: Starting Initiatives; Getting Going; Ways of Working Together; Vision, Mission and Long-Range Planning; Fund-raising; and Imagination for the Future. Exercises, case studies, and questionnaires are included. This is a basic tool for anyone called to do something in the world.

n this prophetic, millennial work, written by Russia's greatest philosopher at the end of the last century, the great task facing humanity as progress races to end history is the resistance to evil. Solovyov addresses what seem to him the three main trends of our time: economic materialism, Tolstoyan abstract moralism, and Nietzschean hubris--the first is already present, the second imminent, while the last is the apocalyptic precursor of the Antichrist.

Vladimir Solovyov, one of nineteenth-century Russia's greatest Christian philosophers, was renowned as the leading defender of Jewish civil rights in tsarist Russia in the 1880s. The Burning Bush: Writings on Jews and Judaism presents an annotated translation of Solovyov's complete oeuvre on the Jewish question, elucidating his terminology and identifying his references to persons, places, and texts, especially from biblical and rabbinic writings. Many texts are provided in English translation by Gregory Yuri Glazov for the first time, including Solovyov's obituary for Joseph Rabinovitch, a pioneer of modern Messianic Judaism, and his letter in the London Times of 1890 advocating for greater Jewish civil rights in Russia, printed alongside a similar petition by Cardinal Manning. Glazov's introduction presents a summary of Solovyov's life, explains how the texts in this collection were chosen, and provides a survey of Russian Jewish history to help the reader understand the context and evaluate the significance of Solovyov's work. In his extensive commentary in Part II, which draws on key memoirs from family and friends, Glazov paints a rich portrait of Solovyov's encounters with Jews and Judaism and of the religious-philosophical ideas that he both brought to and derived from those encounters. The Burning Bush explains why Jews posthumously accorded Solovyov the accolade of a "righteous gentile," and why his ecumenical hopes and struggles to reconcile Judaism and Christianity and persuade secular authorities to respect conscience and religious freedom still bear prophetic vitality.