my wife and daughter

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

In the terrible time of the rampant forces of hell on Earth, amidst the unimaginable horrors of the world war, living in complete solitude, I had the need to clearly realize and truthfully express what I believe in and what gives me the strength to live – to understand the true grace-filled essence of faith and God's truth.

My reflection captures the manifold aspects of religious faith in general and, in particular, its most perfect expression in the revelation of Christ and the Christian faith. But it has one focus, it is based on one fundamental experience. This is the experience of God's immanence in the human soul – the experience of perceiving those spiritual depths in which man really comes into contact and communes with God, the powers of God really flow into the human soul, God Himself lives and acts in us. All the thoughts I have expressed are only variants and conclusions from this fundamental experience.

From this alone it is evident that my reflections contain an element of personal confession. Of course, people who seek objective truth can say to this: why do we need your confession? They can repeat Lermontov's sarcastic words: "Share with me what you know, and I will be grateful; but you offer me your soul – what the hell is your soul for?" In my search for this truth—in all my philosophical writings—I have always tried to avoid all subjectivity, not to confuse objective knowledge with personal confession. But where it is a question of truth, which is revealed only to the living depth of the personal spirit, it is not only in fact revealed to each in his own way, but is itself multifaceted in its own essence, bears a personal imprint, which does not prevent it from being one. "In My Father's house there are many mansions."

At the same time, of course, you have to run the risk that what you yourself seem to have meaning and value for everyone will be unnecessary to others, will be recognized as something only subjective, the fruit of personal eccentricity. You need to take this risk. It is, after all, the risk associated with any search for truth. The risk rate is low. "Who has the right to write memoirs?" asked Alexander Herzen in the preface to his memoirs and wittily answered: "Everyone. Because no one is obliged to read them." This simple consideration also applies to the proposed reflections, since they are in the nature of personal confessions. If my attempt to tell what I have learned from inner experience, and what I myself perceive to be true, should be unsuccessful and fruitless, it will retain its value as a personal confession for those who are close to me in spirit. And if this account of what I had experienced and thought about was not even needed by anyone, I needed it myself.

S. Frank

Lavandou (Var),

сентябрь – декабрь 1941 г.

ЧАСТЬ I

ЧТО ТАКОЕ ВЕРА?

1. ВЕРА-ДОВЕРИЕ И ВЕРА-ДОСТОВЕРНОСТЬ

Что нужно разуметь под «верой»? В чем отличие «веры» от «неверия» или «верующего» от «неверующего»?