Russian Jewish thinker and literary critic Lev Shestov (Lev Isaakovich Schwarzmann; 1866-1938) was obsessed with what he considered to be the inevitable struggle between religious faith and reason. An irrationalist and fideist, this Nietzschelike figure was fascinated with religious faith, though it was perhaps the independent Promethean man that appealed to him more than the God of the Hebrews.

Lev Shestov (pseudonym of Lev Isaakovich Schwarzmann) was born in Kiev on January 31/February 13, 1866. His father, Isaak, was a Jewish merchant and committed Zionist who attended the synagogue, but was reputed to be a "freethinker."

As a youth Shestov was attracted to radical ideas, and it was involvement in political activities in his Kiev gymnasium which forced him to continue his studies at a Moscow school, from which he graduated in 1884. At Moscow University he first studied mathematics, but then transferred to law. His political views forced his transfer...