Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought
In recent decades the study of Russian philosophy and religious thought has become an
intellectual enterprise of global reach and stature, attracting a wide range of scholars. This
enterprise has resulted in a remarkable body of scholarship, showcased in such recent works as
The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought (2020). Scholars in these fields typically
hold university appointments in disparate departments—languages and literatures, history,
religious studies and theology, and philosophy—yet they form a vibrant international
community. The Northwestern University RPRT Research Initiative was founded to provide an
institutional home for this community and to build on its intellectual vitality, significance, and
productivity. We believe this project to be the first of its kind, at least in North America. (The
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies hosts a Working Group on
Philosophy and Intellectual History.)
The NU RPRT Research Initiative will be a forum for free and open inquiry and for diverse
perspectives. It will forge and occupy a unique space: secular and non-confessional but
welcoming of colleagues with deeply-held religious convictions or commitments, thus
encompassing the distinguished ranks of scholars who are active in church life or hold
ecclesiastical positions, as well as colleagues without such commitments or positions.
Russian philosophy and religious thought have always posed essential questions about meaning
and value, questions that go to the heart of the humanities. One remarkable feature of the Russian
philosophical tradition is its open humanism. Russian thinkers have sought a deep understanding
of what it is to be human, both because of its obvious interest, but also for what it tells us about
the nature of reality. Perhaps the most precious theme in the history of Russian philosophy is the
defense of human dignity and the nature of personhood. Here Russian philosophical inquiry
bears directly on current (and long-standing) debates about the origins and grounding of human
rights. Furthermore, nineteenth and twentieth-century Russian philosophers typically drew
ontological or metaphysical conclusions from their philosophical anthropology: they believed
that certain distinctive human capacities (self-consciousness, reason, free will, creativity) refute
materialism and open up richer conceptions of reality, including ones which make room for the
divine. In this way the open humanism of the Russian philosophical tradition converged with Russian religious thought, which encompassed other areas of Russian culture such as literature
and the fine arts.