The Social Philosophy of Sergei Bulgakov in the Contemporary Germanspeaking Investigations (on the Example of the Works of K. Breckner)

Abstract

The article analyses the contemporary German-speaking reception of the socio-philosophical
thought of Sergei Bulgakov (based on the examples of the works of Hamburg’s scholar, Katharina
Breckner). The basic “thinking prisms” which was used by the German scholar in her work
on the interpretation of the concept of “Christian socialism” are exposed. The model of the
comprehension of the socio-philosophical heritage of the Russian thinker proposed by Breckner
is called the “mythological ontology” with the main principle of eliminating the symbolic
element from socio-philosophical projects. According to the German scholar, such a model would
underlie “the projective socialistic myths” and “the Christian socialism” of Sergei Bulgakov in
particularly. This very position, which denies the symbolicity and implies bestowing the ideal
with the status of the objective and independent reality to be achieved, is key for the Russian
thinker’s understanding of such system-shaping notions of his philosophy as “communal man”
and “communion” (sobornost).