Vladimir Soloviev and Father Alexander Men

This article examines the intellectual and spiritual affinities between the philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) and Father Alexander Men (1935-1990), a Russian Orthodox priest murdered in 1990. Drawing primarily on two lectures that Men devoted to Soloviev, the study adopts a comparative and historical approach. The central idea is that Men stands in the philosophical lineage of Soloviev, sharing his integrative thinking, his openness to universal religious currents and his vision of divine-humanity, while distinguishing himself from it through his absence of eschatological pessimism and his silence on Sophia. The article highlights the contribution of these two thinkers to Russian Orthodox theology: their conception of sobornost, their ecumenical approach, their rejection of reductive abstractions and their conviction that Christianity takes up and transcends the universal religious aspirations of humanity.