The Bulgakov Booth is a four-part series of interviews on the Russian priest and theologian, Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944). The interviews here will explore the many intellectual twists and turns in Bulgakov's biography as well as some key themes in his writings.

Regula M. Zwahlen is Scientific Director of the Sergiy Bulgakov Research Center at the University of Fribourg and co-editor of the German edition of Bulgakov’s work. Zwahlen is the author of the German book, Das revo­lutionäre Ebenbild Gottes: Anthropologien der Menschenwürde bei Nikolaj A. Berdjaev und Sergej N. Bulgakov (Man as the Revolu­tionary Image of God: The Philosophical Anthropologies of Sergii N. Bulgakov and Nikolai A. Berdiaev), and has published a number of essays on Russian and Soviet con­cepts of personality and on Russian Orthodox human rights discourse.

PODCAST LINKS:

Regula’s academia.edu page: https://unifr.academia.edu/RegulaZwahlen

Regula’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/RegulaZwahlen

Sergiy Bulgakov Research Center: https://www.unifr.ch/sergij-bulgakov/de/

CONNECT:

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/wipfandstock

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wipfandstock/

SOURCES MENTIONED:

Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Bulgakov, Sergij. The Tragedy of Philosophy: Philosophy and Dogma.

Zwahlen, Regula M. Das revolutionäre Ebenbild Gottes: Anthropologien der Menschenwürde bei Nikolaj A. Berdjaev und Sergej N. Bulgakov

———. “The Revolutionary Spirit of Revelation: Sergii Bulgakov’s Personalist Sociology.”

———. “What is a ‘healthy national feeling’? Serge Bulgakov's response to Chaadaev's despair.”

OUTLINE:

(01:39) – Pronouncing Sergii/Sergius Bulgakov

(03:49) – Roundtable: Bulgakov, Kant, Arendt, Bonhoeffer

(09:03) – Biography: Orthodoxy –> Marxism –> Idealism –> Orthodoxy again

(18:32) – The dignity of the human person, the meaning of matter, and the meaning of history

(20:54) – The “Russian Silver Age”

(24:57) – Bulgakov and Nikolai Berdyaev

(30:23) – Personhood, Godmanhood, and Sophia

(36:43) – Sophiology: Hildegard, Böhme, Russian philosophy

(40:37) – The influence of German Idealism

(43:39) – Political thinking

(47:25) – Relationship to socialism

(50:22) – The nation-state and “a healthy national feeling”

(52:58) – Church, politics, and economics

(56:57) – Where to find Regula’s work