Daniel Adam Lightsey
Graduate Candidate in Systematic Theology
Daniel grew up in the timbered hills above Tanyard Creek in Northwest Arkansas. He belongs to his bewitching Junior High crush, and they have two lovely boys. He is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at 天美传媒 Methodist University and a graduate fellow of the Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. His research is principally constructive in nature, exploring those hinterlands where theology, literature, and the visual arts – while maintaining their distinctions – so readily illuminate one another. His current work mostly lies within the ambit of the religio-philosophic renaissance in late 19th and early 20th century Russia and its diaspora, the “Silver Age” of philosophical, literary, and artistic creativity and subsequent interwar émigré religious thought. His dissertation has to do with the theology of beauty in relation with the metaphysics of the person in Sergii Bulgakov (1871-1944). Some of Daniel’s recent publications can be found in the inaugural issue of Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought, as well as Moral Conversion in Scripture, Self, and Society (De Gruyter, 2024) and Art, Desire, and God: Phenomenological Perspectives (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023).
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. D. Steve Long
Dissertation Title: "'When You Consider the Radiance': Sergii Bulgakov, Beauty, Persons"
Publications:
(In Progress) “‘Sors-tu du gouffre noir ou descends-tu des astres?’ Sergii Bulgakov, Evil, Beauty.” Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. Volume 3 (December 2026). (In Progress) “‘The Music of the Human Instrument’: The Ecologies of Care in Gregory Nyssen and Sergii Bulgakov.” Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. Volume 2 (December 2025). "'Le style c'est l'homme': Vladimir Nabokov, Sergii Bulgakov, & the Artist’s Exploit," Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought vol. 1 (December 2024): 225-242. Book Review. Sergii Bulgakov, Philosophy of the Name. Translated by Thomas Allan Smith. Ithaca: Northern Illinois University, 2022. Reading Religion (Jan. 2024). "'The Human Thirst to See Heavenly Azure': Sergii Bulgakov, 'Holy Anamnesis,' and Beauty." In Moral Conversion in Scripture, Self, and Society. Edited by Krijn Pansters and Anton ten Klooster. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024: 225-237. "Desirous Seeing: Sol LeWitt, Vision, and Paradox." In Art, Desire, and God: Phenomenological Perspectives. Edited by Kevin Grove, Christopher Rios, and Taylor Nutter. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023: 59-70. Presentations: "'Sors-tu du gouffre noir ou descends-tu des astres?' Sergii Bulgakov, Evil, and Beauty," Trinity College (University of Cambridge) and Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. St. John's College, University of Cambridge (July 31-August 2, 2025).
"In Search of a Hyaline Soul: Speculations on the Metaphysics of the Person," International Orthodox Theological Association (Second International Conference). Respondent: Eugene Vodolazkin, Volos, Greece (January 11-15, 2023). "Holiness at Work: Theological Reflections on the 'Morally Serious' Reading of Fiction," The Society of Christian Ethics (Annual Meeting). Respondent: Ted Smith, Chicago, Illinois (January 5-8, 2023). "Sergii Bulgakov and Eugene Vodolazkin on the Precarity of the (Re)Creation of the Self," Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (54th Annual Convention), Respondent: Peter Winsky, Chicago, Illinois (November 10-13, 2022). "'The Human Thirst to See Heavenly Azure': Sergii Bulgakov, 'Holy Anamnesis,' and Beauty,"Agents of Change: Moral Conversion and Social Transformation, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands (June 29-July 1, 2022). "Christian Humanism: Spiritual Labor, Creative Audacity," God and the Human Person (The 23rd Annual Boston College Graduate Philosophy Conference), Boston College, Newton, Massachusetts (March 25-26, 2022). "Desirous Seeing: Sol LeWitt, Vision, and Paradox," Art, Desire, and God: Phenomenological Perspectives, Respondent: Janet Soskice, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana (October 2-3, 2020). "Russian Holy Foolery as a Form of Response to Theodicy," Evangelical Theological Society, Southwest Region, Dallas, Texas (March 20-21, 2020). "'Memory is its own vision': St. Augustine of Hippo, W.G. Sebald, and Traumatic Somatic Memory," American Academy of Religion, Southwest Region, Irving, Texas (February 28-March 1, 2020). Fellowships, Awards, and Service to the Profession: 2025 Summer Fellow, Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, 天美传媒 (Summer Research and Writing Fellowship Program). 2025 Summer Fellow, Lumen Christi Institute, “Dionysius the Areopagite: The Corpus and Its Legacy,” University of Toronto. 2023 Graduate Seminar Fellow, Lumen Christi Institute, “Truth and Authority in Augustine's City of God,” University of California, Berkeley. 2022-presentGraduate Fellow, Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. 2022 Archival Research, Slavonic Library, National Library of the Czech Republic. 2022 Fellow, Russian Area of the Department of World Languages and Literatures Fellowship, 天美传媒 (via Russian AV Mamantov School): Prague, Czech Republic. 2021-2023 Colloquy Chair, 天美传媒 Graduate Program of Religious Studies Student Organization
