A route is a road through ideas on one question: several thinkers in a row, each with an answer of their own, and a bridge from one to the next. 35 routes, 193 steps.
- Can God really become a man?
Five thinkers on whether God can become man
5 steps
- Can a handful of good people save a whole city?
From Abraham to Adelgeim — on those who hold the world up
11 steps
- Can faith and reason coexist?
Five thinkers on where proof ends and choice begins
5 steps
- Can you actually be happy?
Six thinkers on what happiness is — and why it keeps slipping away
6 steps
- Does Russia have a special mission in history?
From Kireyevsky to Berdyaev: the argument over where Russia is going, and whether it has a mission
5 steps
- How did Greek philosophy become the Russian soul?
How Greek wisdom passed through Rome, Constantinople and two monks — and became the Russian soul
9 steps
- How did Greek philosophy reach medieval Europe?
One idea's route through three civilizations — Greek, Arab, and Christian
5 steps
- How did Western philosophy get from Socrates to Camus?
Western thought across 2,500 years — one chain: an idea, its failure, the answer
14 steps
- How do Judaism, Islam and Christianity reconcile faith and reason?
Maimonides, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Thomas Aquinas — Judaism, Islam and Christianity on faith and reason
3 steps
- How do Russian saints find God?
Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov, Anthony of Sourozh — three roads to God
3 steps
- How do good ideas end in terror?
One idea, six embodiments. From Rousseau to the Gulag
7 steps
- How to find meaning in life?
7 thinkers — one line of thought across two centuries
7 steps
- How to stop being afraid of death?
Six thinkers — from Epicurus to Frankl — on the one fear you cannot run from
6 steps
- How to stop fooling yourself?
6 thinkers on how not to deceive yourself — from Socrates to Feynman
6 steps
- If God is good, why is there evil?
Five thinkers on the most uncomfortable question in theology
5 steps
- Is sacrifice the highest form of freedom?
Five thinkers on whether the one who gives himself away is free
5 steps
- Is salvation personal or collective?
From Augustine to Marx: who saves humanity, and from what
5 steps
- Is the soul immortal?
From Plato through Judaism to Christianity — one idea, three languages
3 steps
- What does it mean to be human?
Five thinkers on what it means to be human — and to be made "in the image"
5 steps
- What does it really mean to be free?
From Rousseau to Sartre: why freedom frightens us, and why it cannot be given up.
6 steps
- What happens when you die?
Five answers across twenty-five centuries — from Plato to Dostoevsky
5 steps
- What is emptiness in Buddhism — and why did the west take it seriously?
Buddhism: from enlightenment to the philosophy of emptiness — and why it matters in the West
3 steps
- What is justice — and why can no one agree on it?
5 thinkers on why this question refuses to be settled
5 steps
- What is love, really?
From Plato to Fromm: why love is not a feeling but an art
6 steps
- What is really going on inside us?
Freud, Jung, Frankl — three views of what happens inside
4 steps
- What is the real difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism?
Why Christians pray to one God — and keep their eyes on different things
6 steps
- Where does power come from?
From Machiavelli to Arendt: who has the right to rule — and what happens when that right is lost
6 steps
- Why can't the tao be put into words?
Taoism — a philosophy that begins where language ends
2 steps
- Why did the intelligentsia make the revolution that destroyed it?
How educated people prepared the revolution — and what became of them
4 steps
- Why do smart people do terrible things?
Five thinkers on how a beautiful idea ends in tragedy
5 steps
- Why does beauty matter?
Five thinkers — from Plato to Dostoevsky — on why art exists
5 steps
- Why does nobody listen to the warning until it is too late?
Amos, Jeremiah, Solovyov, Berdyaev — why warnings go unheard
6 steps
- Why is God silent?
Five thinkers on how to live when heaven is silent
5 steps
- Why is Russian Christianity so different from Western?
Five thinkers on the distinct path of Russian spirituality — from Palamas to Berdyaev
6 steps
- Why is Russian literature so dark and depressing?
Four writers on why we read what hurts
4 steps