Sergey Khoruzhy, or the motif of the problematic character of death

Abstract

The article is devoted to the memory of an outstanding scholar — physicist, philosopher, theologian and translator — S. Khoruzhy (1941–2020), with whom the author maintained active communication for three decades. This communication included various human and scholarly encounters: meetings in person, correspondence, participation in projects and conferences, book presentations, and shared accommodations in Sofia and Moscow. The article reveals a number of hitherto unknown facts of the scholar’s biography. Also published are his thoughts on topics he found most relevant, based on an interview in Sofia in June 1997, transcribed by the author. Khoruzhy’s philosophical studies ran in parallel with his major subject (theoretical physics), but it was not until 1989 that his theological and philosophical works reached a wider audience. The article emphasises Khoruzhy’s versatile giſt: an original philosopher, author of the concept of synergetic anthropology and successor of the traditions of Russian religious philosophy, he is also atranslator of Ulysses, a scholar of J. Joyce, and a prominent figure of 20th- and 21st-c. Russian culture.