Nikolai Berdyaev Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Budhi is an interdisciplinary journal of philosophy that seeks to encourage creative and critical contemporary interpretations and appropriations of the history of ideas as well as theoretical constructions addressing contemporary culture... more

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- Zen Buddhism, Dogen, Interfaith Dialogue, Nikolai Berdyaev
- by Teresa Obolevitch
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- Thomas Mann, Bakhtin, John Zizioulas, Russian Philosophy

The aim of the article is the presentation philosophical depictions of loneliness on example two movies: "Breaking the Waves" by Lars von Trier and "The Sacrifice" by Andriej Tarkowski. Slavoy Žižek has noticed similarity between these movies. Their characters, Bess and Alexander, decided to confide in God and to perform irrational act of sacrifice to save what’s the most important in their life. Both pictures are exemplification of loneliness phenomenon described by Nikolai Berdyaev and by existencialists. On the first part of article I describe loneliness as subject of philosophy of loneliness and on the second part I focus on analysis of movies.

- by Davor Džalto
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- Theology, Art Theory, Creativity, Contemporary Art

This dissertation talks about the philosophical overview and the problems related to the notion of Freedom. I have discussed the basic and the very general definition of freedom, along with what other notable philosophers think about what kind of freedom is really true and a genuine idea of freedom. Later I have discussed the difference between positive and the negative freedom and also Berdyaev's notion of freedom followed by the famous work called "The Philosophy of Freedom" by Rudolf Steiner. Lastly I have tried to consider all the philosophers and opinionated my own thinking about the idea of freedom.

- by Zareen Khan
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- Rudolf Steiner, Philosophy Of Freedom, Nikolai Berdyaev

The article presents an examination of “sobornost” in the works of Nikolay Berdyaev in the context of his anthropological and ecclesiological views. This approach was outlined in the studies of the 20th — early 21st century, but hasn’t been sufficiently developed. Sobornost, which Berdyaev himself labeled as the quality of the personal conscience as it stands in the presence God and as the essential characteristic of the Church, is interpreted on the basis of his works in which he expounds his views on man and the Church, the observations of scholars who have addressed the topic earlier also taken into account. It is shown how, drawing on the experience of sobornost, Berdyaev resolves the collision between the personal freedom and the unity of people. The structure of the article is largely based on Berdyaev’s own remarks about the significance of gnoseology, ethics and eschatology in his teaching on man and the Church, and to a certain degree is of a heuristic nature. The philosopher’s anthropological and ecclesiological views, with their key concept of “Christology of man”, are characterized, and then his understanding of sobornost is reconstructed from three perspectives. First, the gnoseological interpretation of sobornost is considered (Berdyaev’s specific understanding of gnosis, his statement about the correlation between cognition (gnosis) and the levels of community between people, as well as his concept of “sobornal gnoseology” are analyzed). Second, the ethical meaning of sobornost is shown (the correlation is traced between the ethics of law, the ethics of redemption and the ethics of creativity, on the one hand, and the implementation of sobornost and the actualization of personality, on the other hand; the meaning of “sobornal gnoseology” for Berdyaev’s teaching on ethics is shown). Thirdly, the specific eschatological character of Berdyaev’s sobornost is explained, to which a number of researchers drew attention (the anthropological grounds of this eschatologism, the “profitable” and open, divine-human nature of “active-creative eschatology” are shown).

- by Sofia Androsenko
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- Anthropology, Ethics, Philosophical Anthropology, Creativity

sÜrGÜnde ÖZGÜr Bir ruH: nikolay a. Berdyaev Bir "özgürlük filozofu" olarak, insan ve problemlerini kendine dert edinen, insana ve özgürlüğe yönelik her tür tehdidi açıkça ve sert bir dille eleştirmekten kaçınmayan ve bu yüzden genç yaştan itibaren ömrünü sürgünde * doç. dr. kemal Bakır, erzurum teknik Üniversitesi, edebiyat fakültesi, felsefe Bölümü.

- by KEMAL BAKIR
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- Nikolai Berdyaev, Tarih Felsefesi, Antropoloji, Varoluşculuk

In Berdyaev’s notion of freedom the borders between theology and philosophy seem to fall down. The same existential concern for spiritual freedom is at the heart of both theology and philosophy. From the point of view of existential philosophy as Berdyaev understands it, only a theologically informed account of freedom, could do justice to the concept of freedom. But a freedom determined by God is not what Berdyaev had in mind as representing authentic freedom. It was necessary for him to reinterpret Jakob Boehme’s concept of Ungrund to arrive at a notion of uncreated freedom that both God and man share. But the articulation of this freedom, and an account of it within our fallen world could only be done as a philosophical pursuit. To arrive at the authentic understanding of spiritual freedom, that is theologically informed, Berdyaev believes that a philosophical rejection of erroneous views of freedom should take place. The articulation of the notion of freedom that does justice to the complexity of the existential situation of both God and man is not for Berdyaev a purpose in itself. The purpose is the arrival at a non-objectified knowledge of freedom that would inform a theologically committed existential attitude.

- by Raul-Ovidiu Bodea
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- Theodicy, Theological Anthropology, Russian Religious Philosophy, Free Will

Must a system of belief that promotes dialogue between a Christian church and other faiths necessarily take an ecumenical view of Christianity? It happens that in the 1920’s, among Russian émigrés living in France, there was a debate on Russian Orthodoxy’s relationship to other faiths, which was really part of a more temporal debate about Russia’s place in the world. On one side of the polemic was a group of mostly young, exiled academics and erstwhile political activists from various fields, many of whom went on to make noteworthy advances in their own disciplines, who became known as the “Eurasianists”. Members of this movement held that there could be no ecumenical communion with the Roman Catholic Church, interfaith dialogue within the Eurasian space, containing adherents to the Buddhist and Muslim faiths, is possible, natural, and desirable. The other side of the debate was represented by the outstanding exiled Russian personalist philosopher, and friend of Jacques Maritain, Nikolai Berdyaev. This paper will describe the debate and explore the question of whether a pluralist outlook need be a cosmopolitan one.

- by Fred Matern
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- Eurasianism, Interfaith Dialogue, Nikolai Berdyaev, Karsavin
- by Andrzej Kobyliński
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- Ethics, Creativity, Russian Philosophy, Beauty

what would come to be called "a turning point in twentieth-century intellectual history." 3 Featuring replies and letters by Raymond Aron, Nicolas Berdyaev, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, and many others, Wahl's "Subjectivity and Transcendence" should indeed be included among the most impor tant debates in twentieth-century Eu ro pean philosophy. For not only does it mark "an indispensable moment for any account of the secularization of Kierkegaard" 4 and "the occasion for Levinas's fi rst use of the concept 'the other' "; 5 it also provided a crucial forum in which to discuss and shape the future of existentialism.

- by Ian Alexander Moore
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- Theology, Friedrich Nietzsche, Émmanuel Lévinas, Jean Wahl

This Introductory Essay presents to the general reader a few facts about Leon Shestov's life and thought. Little-known outside his native Russia, Shestov is one of the most significant philosophers and critics of modern Russia. He is at once a thinker in his own right and a deep-thinking critic of literature and philosophies. This essay includes a short biography of his life and a sketch of some of his philosophical ideas, including those presented in his intriguingly named 'The Apotheosis of Groundlessness' (the original title for 'All Things are Possible!). He is an existentialist and individualist in his thinking, and it is interesting to not that he has written monographs on Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard - the two most fundamental forefathers of 20th century Existentialism. In the work that this essay introduces Shestov takes time to compare the European (or Western) and the Russian ways of thinking. He explores these two Weltanschauungs and go deep to the heart of the divergences between these two philosophies. Leon Shestov is a fascinating writer who is one of the few - apart from Nietzsche and Lichtenberg - who can express his philosophy through a series of thoughts and aphorisms. This essay includes a select bibliography of Shestov's key works of philosophy and criticism.

- by Edouard d'Araille
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- Russian Literature, Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Russian Philosophy

This study spans the entire life and work of the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov (1866-1938). It offers keys to understanding his thought, while also tracing the historical itinerary of his work. Shestov’s thought is not only interesting in itself, as a “philosophy fighting against philosophy,” but also because it reveals an entire world of cultural connections in its extraordinarily keen exploration of other “souls.” The reader will find in Shestov some of the sharpest analyses of authors such as Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Tolstoi, Dostoevskii, Luther, Plotinus, Pascal, Kierkegaard, and many others. This study will better determine the controversial and fascinating philosopher’s place in the history of Russian and Western thought.

- by Andrea Oppo
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- Russian Studies, Russian Literature, Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche

По воскресным вечерам в доме Бердяева собирались не только русские, французские и немецкие интеллектуалы, но и венесуэльцы, американцы и даже представители философии Индии. Например, 11 ноября 1934 г. Бердяев имел возможность представить Габриэлю Марселю не только Раису и Веру Маритен и Льва Шестова, но также Марину Цветаеву, которая прочитала свои стихи, Елену Извольскую и Андрея Карпова 21. А в феврале 1935 г. чета Маритенов пришла в гости к Бердяеву, чтобы в присутствии швейцарского богослова Фрица Либа (1892-1970) принять участие «в споре о необходимости единства христиан в борьбе со злом» 22. Во-вторых, для обоих философов были важны межконфессиональные беседы на бульваре Монпарнас в Париже. Бердяев писал в своей автобиографии:

This paper explores the foundations, implications, and political consequences of Russian traditionalist philosophy, specifically addressing the history of Russian traditionalism, its influence upon the French nouvelle droite, and how these concepts are manifested within Putin's United Russia Party. Further, this paper will explore how these ideas are being populated within the European and American far right, enabling a more accurate measurement of Russian foreign policy activities and their intensity in the post-Soviet era.

- by Shaun Kenney
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- Russian Studies, Political Philosophy, Russian Philosophy, Carl Schmitt

Quello qui presentato è uno studio comparativo sui campi di concentramento nazisti e staliniani, intesi sia come l'espressione più estrema della forma-campo nata alla fine dell'Ottocento, sia come modello delle successive realtà concentrazionarie. Punto di partenza è che il Lager e il Gulag non possono essere visti solo come fenomeni di ordine storico, perché i fatti che si sono consumati al loro interno e l'esperienza umana cui hanno dato luogo superano tanto l'immaginazione quanto le presunte analogie con le maggiori catastrofi del passato. Il campo di concentramento totalitario è inoltre lontano dal porre un problema filosofico o antropologico al pari di altri eventi, in quanto presenta e ripropone questioni che rinviano simultaneamente al senso ultimo della convivenza umana, al significato della Storia, ai momenti tragici dell'esistenza. In questa prospettiva, il libro aspira a essere qualcosa di più che una ricostruzione storiografica. Il suo intento è piuttosto quello di individuare una serie di questioni connesse al campo di concentramento e di analizzarle da diverse angolazioni disciplinari. Nella prima parte ci si concentra sulla forma e il funzionamento del campo totalitario, esaminando il Gulag e il Lager nelle loro specificità, in quanto spazi in cui il tempo, i corpi e le menti sono rigidamente disciplinati secondo un preciso progetto di dominio. Nella seconda parte, invece, ci si sofferma su alcuni aspetti della vita nei campi, così come sul pensiero che con essi si è confrontato (sia durante che dopo), con particolare attenzione agli atteggiamenti assunti di fronte alla sopravvivenza, alla questione della fede religiosa e delle convinzioni politiche, al problema del male e della natura umana, alla ricerca di Dio dopo Auschwitz e Kolyma. LUCA PELOSO è Dottore di ricerca in filosofia. Da anni affianca lo studio di singoli esponenti del pensiero e della letteratura italiani (Gramsci, Pasolini, Primo Levi) all'indagine sulla letteratura concentrazionaria e più in generale sui rapporti tra letteratura, pensiero

- by Luca Peloso
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- Philosophy, Soviet History, Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas

This article was published The European Journal of Theology 25.1 (April, 2016)

- by Joshua Searle
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- Peace and Conflict Studies, Post-Soviet Studies, Peacebuilding, Nikolai Berdyaev

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin borrows a great deal from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's aphorism regarding Russia itself: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. What is often left out is that Churchill did believe there was a key to the puzzle: Russian national interest. Putin himself has instructed members of his own party to review the works of three Russian philosophers and theologians, specifically those of Nikolai Berdayev, Vladimir Solovyov, and Ivan Illyin. Within each context of Russian national interest, Byzantine and Orthodox traditions concerning polity and the rule of law, and Putin's own intellectual vision for a new Russia, such fusion of Orthodox, Slavic, and Byzantine traditions quickly bring into focus Putin's determination to see Russia as a respected and co-equal partner alongside the EU and US, realizing and fulfilling Russia's 21st century role as both a Third Rome and the proper defender of Western Civilization at its periphery. Russian President Vladimir Putin's shift from foreign policy realism to nationalist idealism since the 2008 Georgian crisis has not gone unnoticed by Kremlinologists. Once viewed as a modernizing and Westernizing influence by European and American observers, Putin's recent moves into Ukraine after the Maidan Revolution, the annexation of the Crimea, and the current air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) has shown a degree of Russian chauvinism not seen since the Soviet-era incursions into Angola and Afghanistan in the late 1970s. Once thought to be a partner in the War on Terrorism, Putin's latest moves have shifted Western narratives, demonizing Putin's new Russia as a mafia, or worse as a destabilizing force in Europe that must be met with more firm response from NATO approaching that of a second Cold War.

- by Shaun Kenney
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- Russian Studies, Philosophy, Russian Foreign Policy, Byzantine Studies

Christianity is political, but does not have a "political program." It is revolutionary, but does not call for a change of political regimes. Christian politics is not the secular politics, the politics of power competition and fight for rights and privileges. It is "unconventional" by the standards of contemporary political theory and practice. The Christian understanding of politics is neither paradoxical nor perplexing, yet many fail to admit the adequacy of its concepts and prescriptions, many would argue that to be political means to have a political program, and to be revolutionary means to strive for a change of the political order and power. These are the arguments of those that have no clear sense of the nature of politics and that have no knowledge of the nature of Christianity as the most political and revolutionary teaching in human history.

- by Tsoncho Tsonchev
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- Political Philosophy, Religion and Politics, Nationalism, Religious Ethics

С первых лет XX в. русских писателей начали выдвигать на Нобелевскую премию по литературе. В своей монографии «Русские писатели и Нобелевская премия (1901–1955)» (2007) мы рассматривали историю присуждения и не-присуждения Нобелевской премии русским литераторам с точки зрения русской эпической традиции, уделив первостепенное внимание прозаикам русского зарубежья. Поэтому несколько интересных эпизодов пришлось опустить. Прославленный русский поэт, некогда глава русского символизма Константин Бальмонт был выдвинут на Нобелевскую премию по литературе Роменом Ролланом в 1923 г., наряду с М. Горьким и И. Буниным (в то время все трое находились за пределами России). Выдающийся русский философ Николай Бердяев, живший в эмиграции в Париже, был неоднократно номинирован на премию в 1940-е гг. лундским профессором философии Альфом Нюманом. Экспертные отзывы и о Бальмонте, и о Бердяеве написаны Антоном Карлгреном, копенгагенским профессором славистики и знаменитым журналистом, редактором газеты «Дагенс Нюхетер» («Dagens nyheter»). Его мнение стало решающим при отклонении обеих названных кандидатур Нобелевским комитетом. В 1960-е гг., когда, после присуждения премии Б.Л. Пастернаку, главным кандидатом от русской литературы считался ставший в 1965 г. лауреатом М.А. Шолохов, продолжались номинации русских писателей, в том числе живших в эмиграции. Любопытные истории связаны с именами В.В. Набокова и Я.О. Якобсона. Работа основана на архивных материалах Шведской академии и отражает закулисные подробности этих «маргинальных» историй, а также проливает свет на особенности восприятия и интерпретации русской лирики и философии на Западе.

- by Teresa Obolevitch
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- Bakhtin, Philo of Alexandria, Russian Philosophy, Wittgenstein
- by Hadi Fakhoury
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- Religion, Comparative Religion, Philosophy, Theology

All translations from Russian into English are my own, unless otherwise indicated. The words "person" (личность) and "personality" (характер, личность) are sometimes used interchangeably, according to the preferences of the English translators. When I cite an English translation of Berdyaev's work that uses the word "personality," I employ for the sake of consistency the same term in the immediate discussion. The choice to refer to the original Russian titles in Cyrillic is prompted by the development of new technologies that make it easier to discover an electronic copy of the quoted work and also permit an instant, although imperfect, translation of the Russian source. "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." (Matt. 11:25) "I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith will not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:3-5) ~ 3 ~ Three immediate questions might arise for the specialist reading the title of this study. The first is, "Is Berdyaev still relevant?" The second, "Why 'person' and 'communion'; why not, for example, 'freedom' and 'creativity'?" And the third, "Why 'political theology'?" The answer to the first question should be left to the judgment of the reader. The reader may decide, after examining this work, how relevant this twentieth century Russian thinker is for the contemporary world and political and theological scholarship. Though one important goal of the present book is to demonstrate the significance and the continuing relevance of Berdyaev's thought, the proof should follow naturally and gradually from the text itself, and not from an initial assertion by the author. The answers to the other two questions, however, should be given immediately since they explain the reasons behind the choice of topic and approach. The short answer to the question "Why 'person' and 'communion'?" is because Berdyaev's concept of communion, his Slavophile "soborny" (conciliar), if we may call it so, "communitarianism," has been somewhat neglected by Berdyaev scholarship. His personalism has traditionally been discussed, at least in the English-speaking world, in the light of his philosophy of freedom and creativity and only rarely through his political and social thought. This, I believe, should be corrected. ~ 4 ~ The short answer to the question "Why political theology?" is because Nikolai Berdyaev is one of the most prominent political theologians of the twentieth century, and yet, his name is seldom mentioned by Western scholars who dominate the academic field of political theology today. 1 This omission should be corrected as well. Berdyaev should be firmly included in the company of Rauschenbusch,

Апстракт: Грчки теолог Јована Зизјуласа (1931) заступа тезу да слобода није ствар слободне воље или слободног извора, већ да је реч о онтолошком питању: бити слободан значи поседовади апсолутну онтолошку другост. Следствено, да би људска личност била слободна мора бити кадра да превазиђе сваки облик онтолошке нужности, што укључује створени свет и Бога. По Зизјуласу, међутим, свет је завршена творевина и човек може да бира или да га ”слободно” прихвати као нужност, или да покуша да га уништи. Наша анализа показује да Зизјуласова теологија не успева да превазиђе нужност и трагичност старогрчке онтологије.

"Providential Empire: Russia's Religious Intelligentsia and the First World War" analyzes and contextualizes controversial commentary on the First World War by Russian religious philosophers, primarily Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdiaev, Vladimir Frantsevich Ern, Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov, Prince Evgenii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi, and the Symbolist Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov. Examining the prominence of the concept of Providence in their thought, the dissertation shows how Christian Providentialism can become the basis of an ideological worldview. Belief in the ability of the human mind to perceive the hand of God in history and unfolding events, along with belief in the need to interpret this ostensible evidence of the hand of God as callings to which individual believers or collective actors, such as nations, are meant to respond, leads to the emergence of a "politics of Providentialism." While expressed in a specifically Russian idiom and shaped by a specifically Russian context, the religious intelligentsia's politics of Providentialism was not unique to Russia, and was derived naturally from a traditionalist Christianity that arose in late modern Europe to stand against the perceived cultural threat of nihilism. This politics of Providentialism was one of the defining characteristics of the late imperial Russian religious intelligentsia, and, a socially significant phenomenon, it had a substantial presence in late imperial Russian civil society.

- by Chrissy Stroop
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- Religion, Intellectual History, Russian Studies, Russian Literature

In this paper I will explore three different visions of ecumenism found in three Orthodox thinkers of the last century, Nikolai Berdyaev, Fr Sergius Bulgakov and Vladimir Lossky. With the exception of Bulgakov, they are not the most frequently cited figures in relation to the ecumenical movement, and yet they all were deeply engaged in conversations and cooperation with Christians from other churches, and tried to spell out what these relationships meant for them and in what sense they made visible both already existing and desired unity. As they all are related to the controversial figure of Vladimir Solovyov, I will first briefly turn to him. Then I turn to Berdyaev's discovery of creative and free Orthodoxy, which should be instrumental in overcoming the divided life of the Christian world, followed by Bulgakov's sophianic and pastoral concepts of unity, and finally to Lossky's mystical-eschatological reading of the Christian sources and his devotion to various saints which did not follow divisions into confessional camps. In the conclusion I will ask what of these ecumenical visions could be fruitfully revived to provide inspiration in our search for unity, and strengthen our focus on what is experientially real.

Настоящая работа посвящена исследованию влияния идей Н.А. Бердяева на экзистенциалистскую мысль Ближнего Востока ХХ в. Автором делается вывод о некоторой преемственности основных положений арабоязычной «философии бытия» построениям... more

- by Faris O Nofal
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- Russian Philosophy, Arabic Philosophy, Modern Arabic Literature, Existentialism
- by Teresa Obolevitch
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- Metaphysics, Literature, Russian Philosophy, Dostoevsky

Russian Philosophy in Exile and Eretz-Israel. Jerusalem, 2019. Part 1: Nikolai Berdyaev and Yehoshua Shor: A Correspondence between Two Corners (1927—1946) / Сomp. and comment. by V. Khazan and V. Janzen; introd. to the ser. and to the vol. by V. Khazan. — 658 p. — (Eretz-Israel and the Russian Émigrés in Europe: Contacts, Connections, Communications, Interactions (1919—1939). Vol. I. Part 1). Russian Philosophy in Exile and Eretz-Israel. Jerusalem, 2019. Part 2: “The Marvelous Land of Palestine”: Around Lev Shestov’s Vizit to Eretz Israel in 1936 / Сomp. and comment. by V. Khazan and V. Janzen; introd. to the ser. and to the vol. by V. Khazan. — 1082 р. — (Eretz-Israel and the Russian Émigrés in Europe: Contacts, Connections, Communications, Interactions (1919—1939). Vol. I. Part 2).
Первый том масштабной научной серии «Земля Израиля и русские эмигранты в Европе: контакты, взаимосвязи, коммуникация, взаимодействие (1919—1939)», выходящей под грифом Еврейского университета в Иерусалиме, не может не при- влечь внимания всех, кого волнует тема бытования русской кулRussian Philosophy in Exile and Eretz-Israel. Jerusalem, 2019. Part 1: Nikolai Berdyaev and Yehoshua Shor: A Correspondence between Two Corners (1927—1946) / Сomp. and comment. by V. Khazan and V. Janzen; introd. to the ser. and to the vol. by V. Khazan. — 658 p. — (Eretz-Israel and the Russian Émigrés in Europe: Contacts, Connections, Communications, Interactions (1919—1939). Vol. I. Part 1). Russian Philosophy in Exile and Eretz-Israel. Jerusalem, 2019. Part 2: “The Marvelous Land of Palestine”: Around Lev Shestov’s Vizit to Eretz Israel in 1936 / Сomp. and comment. by V. Khazan and V. Janzen; introd. to the ser. and to the vol. by V. Khazan. — 1082 р. — (Eretz-Israel and the Russian Émigrés in Europe: Contacts, Connections, Communications, Interactions (1919—1939). Vol. I. Part 2).
Первый том масштабной научной серии «Земля Израиля и русские эмигранты в Европе: контакты, взаимосвязи, коммуникация, взаимодействие (1919—1939)», выходящей под грифом Еврейского университета в Иерусалиме, не может не при- влечь внимания всех, кого волнует тема бытования русской культуры в изгнании после 1917 г., а также судьбы русскоязычной интеллигенции в Палестине.ьтуры в изгнании после 1917 г., а также судьбы русскоязычной интеллигенции в Палестине.

Critic, poet, and translator, Ivan Aksenov was a remarkable representative of the Russian avant-garde but his life and works long remained forgotten. This book of essays by authors from nine different countries sheds light on the writer's extraordinary contribution to Russian culture. – Поэт, критик и переводчик Иван Александрович Аксенов был замечательным представителем русского авангарда, но его жизнь и творчество долгое время оставались в тени. В этой книге исследователи из девяти стран освещают выдающийся вклад писателя в русскую культуру.

- by Natascha Drubek
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- Russian Studies, Music History, Avant-Garde Cinema, Film Studies

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the Russian Philosopher Nikolaj A. Berdjaev’s main works during his time in Berlin from 1922 to 1924. Different editions, translations and articles of Berdjaev’s researches were examined in order to understand his conception of personalism and the human being as made in the image of God. Particular attention was paid to the essays of Berdjaev that were later collected as a book called „Das neue Mittelalter“. International literature from scholars who have written about Berdjaev was consulted in order to form an objective assessment of his theories and expose his central idea of the person being free also in matters of faith as created in the image of God. As a conclusion, this paper indicates that his concepts and ideas can be found and seen later on in the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, approved by the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago.

The intersection between the Eastern European rabbinate and Russian religious thought has yet to be addressed adequately in academic scholarship. A key example of this intersection was Rabbi Shmuel Alexandrov (1865-1941), a maverick rabbi and intellectual whose fascinating writings are all but neglected. This article focuses on the influence of the Russian "God-Seekers" on Alexandrov’s thought and on the common ground that underlies that influence. The article also examines how Alexandrov used the God-Seekers’ idea of the neo-religious Übermensch to advance his own individualistic and anarchistic ideas, and how those ideas took shape in Alexandrov’s later writings.

- by Isaac Slater
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- Religion, Christianity, Comparative Religion, Eastern European Studies

After George Florovsky's claim that 'the Fathers are the eternal category and criterion of the truth', 1 it has become clear more than ever that the perennial question of Orthodox theology is precisely one of how to read the Church Fathers. 2 If we accept that the Fathers are 'the eternal category and criterion of truth', is it not the case that this major methodological contention a priori and in a radical manner determines our reading of patristic texts? It seems that Florovsky's neopatristic synthesis, as a methodological paradigm, does not envisage a possibility of a critical reading of the Fathers. Although Florovsky talks about the 'new creative act', his vision of creative theology focuses entirely on the exegesis of the 'western religious tragedy' and never seems to accept a possibility of a critical approach to the Fathers.

- by Romilo Aleksandar Knežević
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- Patristics, Personhood, Trinity, John Zizioulas
- by Raul-Ovidiu Bodea
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- Authenticity, Martin Heidegger, Russian Religious Philosophy, Existentialism

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine and compare Nietzsche’s concept of chaos and Berdyaev’s notion of the Ungrund, bearing in mind the ontological problem of human freedom and the context of the ‘God after metaphysics’ debate. Nietzsche and Berdyaev introduce their respective concepts in trying to overcome the impasse of onto-theology caused by the view of God as actus purus. Chaos and the Ungrund stand for the idea of the posse reintroduced in our days by Richard Kearney. The primary cause of onto-theology, for Kearney, is the classic metaphysical tendency to subordinate the possible (posse) to the actual (esse). I identify posse with Godhead, which is the first principle in God, the ‘unapproachable intensity of his being’ and the ‘inexhaustible ground’ from which everything origi- nates. But during the past centuries rationalism has deprived God of this first principle. ‘The power of the Godhead has disappeared.’ Berdyaev reminds us that there cannot be a valuable theodicy without onto- logical anthropodicy. God ceases to be actus purus when, as the result of his becoming, there is more being than there was before. God and the human being are more than just God. Humans must possess potency similar to the divine, which implies that at the end of their action there is more being than there was before. God cannot be the living God if his creature is not alive. The overcoming of onto-theology, therefore, requires a theanthropic hermeneutical method.

I would like to tell you today about the aspects of the aesthetics of cosmism that intersect with notions of contemporary art. This task is rather complicated for a variety of reasons. One major obstacle is the fact that Russian cosmism itself is little known in the West. Surprisingly, from the point of view of the philosophical canon, its arrival into the realm of public attention and intellectual discussion is very recent. The foundational cosmist texts, written between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have only been translated into English in the last year or two. Even in its motherland, cosmism occupies a marginal position. The term " russian cosmism " arose in intellectual parlance in USSR in the 1970s, and its usage is still being debated by some researchers even though the very word " cosmism " was used by artists and poets associated with the historical avant-garde of the 1920s. Today, this is an umbrella term that unites disparate and sometimes polar positions in relation to outer space, the development of life, and the place of the human and God in this process. In a sense, it is not surprising that even now cosmism is still sometimes perceived as an exotic intellectual movement with a national flavor. A further complication exists: even those aspects of cosmist aesthetics which are close to discussions within contemporary art are examples that go beyond the latter's known extremes. Nevertheless, this fact makes them especially valuable in service of the search for what could replace the aesthetic canon of the 20th century.

- by Arseny Zhilyaev
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- Russian Studies, Marxism, 20th century Avant-Garde, Nikolai Berdyaev

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.

- by Paul Gavrilyuk
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- Russian Studies, Russian Religious Philosophy, Political Theology, Russian History

What is reality? Most people in the modern world are ignorant of metaphysical realities, not to mention the prevalence of semantic confusion, and therefore Wynand de Beer aims to counter this ignorance and confusion. He employs numerous insights from classical Greek philosophy and traditional Christian theology in order to discuss the various levels of reality, ranging from the highest (the divine) to the lowest (the material). The author then deals with a range of philosophical and theological themes in the light of the preceding discussion. These include well-being and love, time and eternity, good and evil, truth and knowledge, and the survival of the soul beyond bodily death, which is the only kind of immortality that human beings may attain. A lengthy chapter also deals with the manifestation of higher levels of consciousness in religion, mathematics, and music. In the later chapters of the book, the author subjects salient aspects of the Western sociocultural phenomenon known as "political correctness" to critical scrutiny. In the process, these ideologically driven and media-promoted "isms" are contrasted with both Hellenic and Christian thought, and the penetrating writings of traditionalist and/or anti-modernist thinkers from different parts of the world.

- by Wynand Vladimir De Beer
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- Metaphysics, Plato, Aristotle, Patristics