By Faith Alone: The Medieval Church and Martin Luther

Lev Shestov’s By Faith Alone confronts Eastern and Western European conceptions of faith through Russian literature, ancient and medieval philosophy, and Christian theology. Written from 1910-1914, this first English-language translation brings together important early writings on the medieval church and Martin Luther. Shestov reconciles the Greek notion of rational truth with Biblical revelation by drawing on a wide range of ancient, medieval, philosophical and theological sources from Plato to Hegel, Tertullian to Saint Augustine , and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to William of Ockam. He argues that rational truth has skewed Christian belief by determining knowledge and truth in ways that prize the mind over the world. This approach marks a turning point in the evolution of Shestov’s existential thought. It establishes a basic division that became central to Shestov’s later work, between Athens as reason and Jerusalem as faith. By Faith Alone provides a crucial piece of the puzzle in the genesis of Shestov’s later and better-known writings on medieval philosophy.