As for "philosophical history," ".he posed that history is made up of three successive phases, undifferentiated unity, separation, and differentiated unity between and within these fields."
[123] Obviously the afore mentioned "second era" that is characterised by a "lack of love to nature" coincides with the second period in the historical and in the theological registers.
What type of love did Solov′ev have in mind when he diagnosed a lack of it and how is related to prophecy? Discrediting the Marxian variant of materialism thoroughly
[124] the young Solov’ëv introduced the notion of "religious materialism" in
Evrejstvo i khristianskij vopros, 1884. Christ′s advent to the Jews accounts, as he explains, for their deep religiosity, but also for the fact that they were people of law and order, and simultaneously a prophetic people. In this context, he distinguishes three forms of "materialism: "
"practicalmaterialism" means no more than crude, egoistic, hedonistic, little sensible forms of life. As Solov’ëv sees it, practical materialism is equivalent to Marx′s
"scientific materialism: " the "practical materialist" is a shallow type of personality that Marx objectified and prolonged into historical determinism, an eschatology that excludes liberty. A third type of materialism,
"religious materialism," describes the Hebrews′ thought and mentality. They did not separate "spirit" from its material appearance: "matter" did not have any independent existence, it was neither God nor devil, but represented rather a yet "undignified dwelling," inhabited by God′s spirit sanctifying the vessel through man′s co-creativity. The faithful Hebrew desired the entire nature, the world he lived in, to have Gods "wholeness" at its disposal, given that He also is a "holy" or "spiritual corporeality."
[125] Because the Hebrews deeply believed in this type of "holy corporeality," meaning in fact a permanent interrelation between God and man by means of spiritualised nature, they were the chosen people to whom Christ first appeared. Yet, as Solov’ëv affirms, Christ demanded from them a dual deed, namely the renunciation of national egoism and secondly a temporary, partially limited relinquishment of the world′s welfare
[126].
His early anti-Marxian concept of "religious materialism" flows into his complex concept of spiritualising existence. Spiritualisation represents the "central element" in Solov’ëv′s religious philosophy.[127] In the Justification of the Good he indeed maintains the position that between spiritual and material being there is no dichotomy, but both are intrinsically bound to each other, which is why every transformative process is a development of "God′s material (protsess bogomaterialnyj)."[128]"(M)atter has a right to spiritualisation," spiritualisation originates in love and leads to the moral organisation of material life.[129]
Humanity dawns by redeeming material nature, viz. by spiritualising the physis. In Christian terminology, spiritualisation signifies a sort of transfiguration that brings redemption. Redemption became a Biblical metaphor for describing the saving work of Jesus delivering humanity from sin and evil by His transfiguration, by the sacrifice of his natural body out of love to man. Christ′s transfiguration
