Seven Days of Narod: Sergei Bulgakov's Christian Socialist Newspaper (with Catherine Evtuhov). In: Building the House of Wisdom. Sergii Bulgakov and Contemporary Theology. Ed. by B. Hallensleben, R. Zwahlen, A. Papanikolaou, P. Kalaitzidis. Münster: Aschendorff-Verlag, 2024, 153–176 (original) (raw)
Related papers
The subject of my report remains largely understudied. The most important contributions on the political dimension of Russian religious thought belong to Rowan Williams, who in 1999 published an excellent anthology of Bulgakov's writings under the title Sergii Bulgakov: Towards a Russian Political Theology (T&T Clark) and Paul Valliere, who in 2007 co-edited a volume The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Theology on Law, Politics, and Human Nature (New York: Columbia University Press), with a strong emphasis on Russian émigré theologians.
Зборник Матице српске за славистику, 2020
In the article, the inner form and the most important elements of content of the supplement by religion, which has influenced both Marxist revolutionary messianism and anti-messianism of conservative consciousness and conservative social and political thought of the Modernist period. The adversarial relationship of these two philosophical and ideological positions was often interpreted through the lens of the opposition of the Old and the New Testament, of conservative essence of the former and messianistic essence of the latter. As an example of the revolutionary-messianistic logic, the theory of "propaganda" of Russian Marxists God-builders is considered in the article, represented along with an analysis of historical forms of religious consciousness, firstly in the work of A. V. Lunacharsky "Religion and Socialism" (1908), while for an example of historical self-reflection of conservative consciousness we took the criticism of the New Testament and Christianity by V. V. Rozanov.
The Orthodox Church and Russian Revolutionaries, 1900-1905
Early twentieth century Russian society was in a state of major transformation, yet at the same time, rooted in the feudalistic traditions of the past. Industrialisation and a dominant rural population lived within an empire governed by an autocratic government, that ruled with the assistance of a political theology that saw the Russian Orthodox Church legitimate and sanctify the political and social status quo. Nevertheless, revolutionary movements that emerged from the nineteenth century onward attempted to challenge this status quo, seeking various ways to overthrow Russia’s autocracy. It was the Marxist revolutionary group, the Bolsheviks, who would eventually prove successful in this endeavour, and this thesis explores the role the Bolsheviks played from the early twentieth century in their struggle against autocracy and the church. The focus will be on the tactics of the Bolsheviks in their struggle against religion, the events leading up to and including the first Russian Revolution of 1905, the key role the priest Father Gapon played, and the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, which would see the Bolsheviks go on the offensive and see Vladimir Lenin write Socialism and Religion at the end of this crucial year.
This article represents an analysis of the religious and political thought of Slavophiles and concentrates on the way in which Slavophile ecclesiology and epistemology lead to a form of Christian populism and to a messianic vision of history in which the key role is played by the Russian people. The article emphasises the paradoxes of the Slavophile theological and political thought, as well as its political implications at the level of the 19 th century Russian society.
International Journal of Public Theology, 2020
With the collapse of the in 1991 evangelicals received unprecedented opportunity to raise their voices in the public arena. However, as the events during the Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) in Ukraine demonstrated, most evangelicals could not formu- late their attitude towards these events. Instead they assumed existing positions which sometimes were fundamentally opposite to the Christian narrative. This article seeks to explore perspectives of the one of the pioneers of Baptism in the Russian Empire, Vasilii V. Ivanov-Klyshnikov (1846–1919), on the church, Kingdom of God and society with the view to Ind elements for a public theology. Ivanov’s perspectives are expand- ed through the concept of the church as visible and political.
Orthodox Political Theologies: Clergy, Intelligentsia and Social Christianity in Revolutionary Russia, Dissertation, Central European University, 2020
The dissertation is the intellectual history of the Orthodox left during the revolutionary years of 1905-8 in Imperial Russia. The research reconstructs debates and dialogues between progressive clergy and radical religious intelligentsia following the massacre of Bloody Sunday on 9 January 1905. The dissertation interprets the visions that emerged in the network of the Orthodox left in the framework of ‘political theologies’. It focuses on three programs and their theo-political language: the Brotherhood of Zealots for Church Renovation; the Christian Brotherhood of Struggle; and the Union of Christian Politics. Members argued that the mutually dependent relationship between the tsar and the people, which served as a political bedrock for the Empire for centuries, was now beyond repair. The bloodshed was perceived as a fundamental break in Russian Orthodox political theory, and the horrible events inspired religious intelligentsia and progressive clergy to theorise about politics and social justice as Orthodox believers. The dissertation identifies the concept of Christian obshchestvennost’ (sociality) as the focal point of all programs that emerged among advocates of the Orthodox left in the period. The concept had palingenetic power, it was meant to reinvigorate the Church and to re-Christianise the whole of fin de siècle Russian society. My research argues that the theo-political imagination and language of the Orthodox left was inspired both by Russian Orthodox tradition, in particular by Modern Russian Theology; and by non-Orthodox traditions of social Christianity, but it developed in opposition to the Marxist left. The analysed projects were short-lived due to internal conflicts and repressions by Church and state, but they represent a vibrant chapter in the history of Russian Orthodox social and political thought, reflecting on theo-political concepts that remain central to the Russian Orthodox world up until today.
Rethinking Marxism, 2020
Of all the past efforts to reconcile Marxism and religiosity, the "god-building" episode within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) is especially fascinating. Situating god building in its historical context, amidst the reaction that followed the revolutionary defeat of 1905, this essay reconstructs the intellectual drama which subsequently ensued. Maksim Gorkii and Anatolii Lunacharskii emerge as the progenitors and main protagonists of the god-building current, in debate with more orthodox Marxists like Plekhanov and Lenin. God building was articulated in a number of different literary forms, from poems and letters to novels, articles, and even philosophical treatises. Ultimately, the objections raised by Lenin and others are found to be more in line with the views of Marx and Engels, though god building does pose important questions about the redeemable content of religious belief.
Social and Political Thought in the Russian Religious Renaissance
Before the Russian revolution of 1917 and subsequently in exile, the leading figures of the Russian religious renaissance were deeply engaged in social and political questions. Vladimir Soloviev, Sergius Bulgakov and Nicolas Berdyaev in particular presented Christian philosophies and theologies as alternatives to secular philosophies which captivated the Russian intelligentsia in late imperial Russia. Their thinking was consistent with evangelical precepts and the social thinking and actions of the early Fathers of the Church, even if not always couched in explicitly Christian terms. Major Christian theological and spiritual principles inspiring their theologies include the equality of all human beings, the evangelical imperative of love of neighbour as a reflection of love of God, the uniqueness of the human person, and freedom. Social and political thinking during the Russian religious renaissance provided a solid, if inadequately recognized, basis for the development of later Orthodox social and political theology.