Expression, Word and Revelation in the Philosophy of Semen L. Frank

Abstract

In his philosophical works S.L. Frank was able to integrate the personalistic phenomenology of the
20th century into the ontological thinking of Christian Platonism. At the same time such concepts as
“expression”, “word” and “revelation” became the key to his ontology. In this article, the importance
of these concepts for Frank’s thought is demonstrated on the basis of his religious philosophy (“The
unknowable”, 1939) and anthropology (“Reality and Mankind”, 1949). The sources that used the
Russian philosopher in his work, as well as the harmony of his thoughts to ones of other authors are
not the subject of this study. Despite the fact that the S.L. Frank does not mention directly the disputes about Imiaslavie that took place in the Russian Orthodoxy on the eve of the First World War,
his reflections on the word and the revelation, as well as his evaluative statements are related to the
question actively debated at that date: in which sense God or Jesus Christ are present in their Name.