Sublimation, unicorporeality and the white monastery: psychoanalytic and theological language in the legacy of fr. A. Zhurakovsky

Abstract

The article examines the reception of psychoanalytic language in the early theological legacy of priest Anatoly Zhurakovsky. Drawing primarily on his essay “The Mystery of Love and the Sacrament of Marriage” (1917), as well as related texts and letters, it analyzes Zhurakovsky’s attempt to rethink the problems of love, sexuality, marriage, and ecclesial unity within the broader context of the cultural and intellectual transformations of late modernity. Special attention is paid to the influence of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, William James’s psychology of religion, Russian religious philosophy, and the theology of all-unity. It is shown that Zhurakovsky’s engagement with the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation was motivated less by an effort to translate theological content into contemporary cultural language than by an attempt to respond to increasingly complex conceptions of the human subject and religious experience. The article reconstructs his understanding of marriage as a path of the transformation of eros through volitional self-renunciation, ascetic abstinence, creativity, and participation in the ecclesial unity-in-multiplicity. Particular emphasis is placed on the interrelation between sublimation and the ascetic notion of the “cutting off of the will,” which Zhurakovsky interprets as a conscious and creative overcoming of natural impulses. The study further analyzes the connection between the concept of “consubstantial corporality” (edinoplotie) and the idea of overcoming the “impenetrability” of human persons within the Church. It also traces the later development of these ideas in Zhurakovsky’s pastoral practice, including the concept of the “white monastery.” The article concludes that Zhurakovsky’s case represents one of the earliest examples of the theological reception of psychoanalysis in Russia and makes it possible to trace transformations in theological language under the influence of the anthropological and cultural challenges of the early twentieth century.