Starting with a definition of political modernity from the perspective of its greatest trial – totalitarianism – this study asks the question how community is conceptualized in the contemporary Western philosophical discourse and in the Russian Orthodox intellectual tradition. Contemporary philosophical and theological approaches in Russia develop alternative perspectives on community and on the human subject. This study analyzes them historically and philosophically and compares them with liberal, postmodern and communitarian philosophies of community in the West.

The Author: Kristina Stoeckl was born in Austria in 1977. She has studied comparative literature, Russian studies, international relations and political theory in Innsbruck, Bochum, Budapest and Florence. Currently she is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Innsbruck.