The
Holy Spirit Section was created about ten years ago in Academytown near
Novosibirsk (Russia), when, in the middle of 90’s, Francis Kelly had
visited Siberia. In the Novosibirsk State University he had the talk
with Klementy Samochvalov, doctor of philosophy, and Maria Timofeeva,
at that time the acting dean of the Philosophical Faculty. Both of them
are Catholics by their denomination and are working in the Institute of
Mathematics (Siberian Department of Russian Academy of Sciences). In
90’s many Catholic lecturers had been teaching at the Faculty of
Philosophy.
The number of persons which take part in the Holy Spirit Section’s
activities isn’t very large, not all of them are Catholics, but we
genuinely try to reach better understanding of the deep problems
connecting our faith and science. Most of us work in the Institute of
Mathematics; some are teaching in Novosibirsk State University and in
school.
The important line of our activities is making the translations. We are
eager to endeavor the essential works to be published in Russian. Now
we hope that Russian translation of the book “The Intellectual History
of Psychology” (about 370 pages) written by Daniel N. Robinson,
professor of psychology at Georgetown University, will soon be
published by the Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History of St.
Thomas in the series BIBLIOTHECA IGNATIANA. This very fundamental and
profound book was translated in Russian by Maria Timofeeva (Klementy
Samochvalov – one of the scientific editors). We take the opportunity
for expressing our gratitude to Professor Daniel N. Robinson for his
permission to publish this remarkable book in Russian.
Since 1999 Maria Timofeeva is teaching logic in Novosibirsk Catholic
Seminary, a few years ago she also read the course “The History of
Psychology” in Novosibirsk Catholic Centre “INIGO”.
Our group has rather broad area of
interests; the meetings were devoted to the different kind of
questions. For instance, those concerning the problem of existence,
logical elaboration of the ontological argument, the problems of time
and eternity, the foundations of mathematics and physics, etc. Several
articles on those subjects are published in Russian editions. Among
them there are the articles of Klementy Samochvalov: “The Existential
Predicates and the Ontological Argument”, “Logic and the Relativity
Principle”, “The Structure of Religious Experience”, “What does it mean
to study time philosophically?” (the latter with joint authors). Our
investigations of the problem of time were supported by the Russian
Humanitarian Scientific Fund.
Some articles also have given the subjects for our seminars. The
circuit of meetings was devoted to the article named “Eternity” (by
Norman Kretzman and Eleanor Stump). Among the ideas of different
authors which we’ve discussed are the books of Stanley L. Jaki.
Klementy Samochvalov “(during the work at the Faculty of Philosophy)
had also discussed the works of Stanley L. Jaki at his seminars with
the students.
The lines of our activities are encouraged by friendliness and
sincerity underlying our communication. This kind of spiritual support
is the very valuable gift allowing us to concentrate on our
investigations.