Georges Florovsky's Monograph Herzen's Philosophy of History: The New Archival Material and the Reconstruction of the Full Text
Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) was a prominent Russian émigré historian, philosopher, Orthodox theologian, and ecumenist. He was also the first Orthodox theologian to teach at Harvard Divinity School (1957-1964). In the 1920s, Florovsky wrote and defended his dissertation on the leading nineteenth-ce...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2015]
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 2015, Volume: 108, Issue: 2, Pages: 197-212 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Florovskij, Georgij Vasilʹevič 1893-1979
/ Dissertation
/ Gercen, Aleksandr Ivanovič 1812-1870
/ History 1920-1929
/ Manuscript
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| RelBib Classification: | FB Theological education KBK Europe (East) TK Recent history VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Publisher) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) was a prominent Russian émigré historian, philosopher, Orthodox theologian, and ecumenist. He was also the first Orthodox theologian to teach at Harvard Divinity School (1957-1964). In the 1920s, Florovsky wrote and defended his dissertation on the leading nineteenth-century Russian public intellectual, Alexander Herzen (1812-1870). Until now, the full text of Florovsky's work had been considered lost. I recently found five documents containing a substantial portion of the dissertation in the Georges Florovsky Papers archive of the St Vladimir's Seminary Library (GFP SVS). This newly discovered material amounts to about one-half of the dissertation and contains some important clues for reconstructing the remaining half of the work. My article discusses: 1) the plan of the dissertation and the history of its composition; 2) Florovsky's defense of the dissertation in Prague in 1923, as summarized in Alexander Izgoev's report, preserved in the Georges Florovsky Papers at the Princeton University Library (GFP PUL); 3) Florovsky's preparation of the dissertation for publication; 4) the description of the newly discovered archival material; and 5) the reconstruction of the dissertation, as preserved in the redactions of 1928-1930. The dissertation is the only monographic study that Florovsky ever finished, his other book-length studies being surveys rather than monographs. The dissertation is also important for understanding the methodological presuppositions of Florovsky's magnum opus, The Ways of Russian Theology (1937). |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Reference: | Errata "Georges Florovsky's Monograph Herzen's Philosophy of History (2016)"
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816015000139 |



