Léon Zander

This article by Léon Zander, drawn from a report presented in 1960 at the Hamburg ecumenical study days, examines the relations between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church from both a historical and theological perspective. The author adopts an analytical and comparative approach, structured around two axes: the "how," meaning the ecclesial sensibilities and ways of life specific to each tradition, and the "what," namely the doctrinal divergences concerning Trinitarian theology, anthropology, and ecclesiology. He shows that historical obstacles — the Crusades, Uniatism, proselytism — have durably burdened this dialogue, while structural differences, particularly regarding the Filioque, the Immaculate Conception, and papal primacy, constitute fundamental points of theological disagreement. The contribution of the article lies in its balanced contextualization of convergences and divergences, placed within the broader framework of the ecumenical problematic of the twentieth century.

This article by Leon Zander offers an analytical study of Russian religious philosophy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in its critical confrontation with Marxism. Starting from the observation that this tradition is almost entirely unknown in the West, the author presents its characteristic features — its existential dimension, its rootedness in life, its Byzantine heritage — before examining the reasons for the initial attraction that Marxism held for thinkers such as Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Frank and Novgorodtsev. The article then analyzes the two main lines of their critique: Marxism's inability to provide a valid moral foundation and its lack of scientific rigor. It shows that these philosophers did not content themselves with a refutation, but sought to go beyond Marxism by integrating its genuine contributions — notably the discovery of the economic factor — into a more complete anthropological vision. The main contribution of the article is to reveal the richness and coherence of an unjustly neglected philosophical tradition.