Opening his chapter on “The Faith” of Bolshevism (chapter 3), Yuri Slezkine writes that “The most obvious question about [the] luminous faith is whether it is a religion.” The most “sensible” answer,…
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The House of Government
A religious revolution?
December 7, 2018
As a historian—not a scholar of religion—specialized in Hungarian, Italian, and German history, I cannot say much about Yuri Slezkine’s interpretations of Russian and Soviet history. I am very impressed by The…
December 7, 2018
The House of Government
Religion or ideology?
November 30, 2018
While I cannot nearly do justice here to Slezkine’s ambitious undertaking, I briefly touch upon two points to suggest why it does matter whether we, as scholars (historians, theologians, sociologists, etc.), speak…
November 30, 2018
The House of Government
Millenarianism in the Soviet Union and Maoist China
November 23, 2018
As late modernizers, both Russian and Chinese societies urgently catapulted themselves into modernity, not through the gradual capitalist rationalization process in the West, but through a violent overthrow of the old order.…
November 23, 2018
Science and the soul: New inquiries into Islamic ethics
Proximate enigmas
November 21, 2018
I’m delighted—and daunted!—for this chance at engaging the rich discussions of this forum. Nothing I say in this short space can be adequate to their depth and range. All I can hope…
November 21, 2018
The House of Government
Bolshevism, Orthodoxy, and secularization in Russia
November 16, 2018
When I first heard about Yuri Slezkine’s new book, The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution, I was excited at the idea of telling the story of the builders…
November 16, 2018
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