Fr.
Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov () ( - July 12, 1944) was a
Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher and economist.
Biography
Early life
Sergei Bulgakov was born to the family of an
Orthodox priest (Nikolai Bulgakov) in the town of
Livny,
Oryol guberniya on June 16, 1871
O.S. He studied at Orel
seminary, then at
Yelets gimnasium. In 1894 he graduated from the Law School of
Moscow University, where he had also undertaken a serious study of
political economy.
During his study at the seminary Bulgakov became interested in Marxism and took part in the Legal Marxism movement. Studying Marxism, Bulgakov eventually became convinced of the impotence of this theory. Under the influence of works of Russian religious thinkers (Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, etc.), in the course of his meetings and arguments with Leo Tolstoy he found his religious beliefs again. He wrote a book about his evolution (Sergey Bulgakov, From Marxism to Idealism, 1903).
Such an evolution was common for the Russian intelligentsia of the time, and he soon became one of their recognised ideologists. A primary contributor to the books Problems of Idealism (1902), Vekhi, Problems of Religion, About Vladimir Solovyev, About the Religion of Leo Tolstoy, The Religion of Solovyov's Philosophical Society, he participated in the journals New Way (Новый Путь) and Questions of Life (Вопросы Жизни). He was a leader of the publisher Way (Путь, 1911–1917), where he printed many important works of contemporary Orthodox theology.
From 1906 to 1922
In 1906 he was elected as an independent
Christian Socialist to the
Second Duma. He published the important original monographs
Philosophy of Economy («Философия хозяйства» 1912) and
Unfading Light («Свет Невечерний» 1917), in which he first offered his own teaching based on the combination of
sophiology of
Vladimir Solovyov and
Pavel Florensky, the later works of
Schelling, and his own
intuition-based ideas about the Orthodox faith.
When he returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, he was ordained into the priesthood (1918), and rose to prominence in church circles. He took part in the All-Russia Sobor of the Orthodox Church that elected patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. Bulgakov rejected the October revolution and responded with On the Feast of the Gods ("На пиру богов", 1918), a book similar to the Three talks of Vladimir Solovyov.
During the Russian Civil War he was in Crimea, where he worked in the field of philosophy. He wrote books Philosophy of the Name ( "Философия имени", 1920) and Tragedy of Philosophy ("Трагедия философии", 1920) in which he revised his views about the relation of Philosophy to Dogmatism. He concluded that the Christian views can be expressed only by dogmatic theology. Thereafter his works were devoted to dogmatic theology.
On December 30, 1922, the Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals on the so-called Philosophers' ship, Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, and Ivan Ilyin among them.
Bulgakov in Paris
In May 1923 he became professor of Church Law and Theology at the school of law of the
Russian Research Institute in
Prague. In 1925 he helped found
St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute (
l'Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge), in
Paris, France. He was the head of this institute and Professor of
Dogmatic Theology until his death from
throat cancer on July 12, 1944. His last work was devoted to the
Apocalypse.
Controversy
Bulgakov’s teaching on
sophiology is highly controversial. The attempt to understand it properly is hindered by the highly political controversy surrounding it in the 1930s.
Ecclesiastical situation in Russian Orthodoxy
By 1931 there existed three separate Russian Orthodox jurisdictions in Europe:
the Russian Church Abroad/Sremski Karlovtsy Synod (ROCA or ROCOR) under Met.
Antony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev; the "Patriarchal" Church answering ultimately to Met. Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Moscow (of which the young
Vladimir Lossky was a member); and the Russian Church in Western Europe (Bulgakov’s own jurisdiction as well as the church of Georges Florovsky) under Met. Evlogy (Georgievsky) that was under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarch of Constantinople -- though in 1934, Met. Evlogy was privately reconciled to Met. Antony, and in 1935 he went to
Karlovtsy for a special reunion conference, at which time the schism between him and ROCOR was healed In 1936, Met. Evlogy again cut his ties with ROCOR, quite possibly because of the controversy over .
Reaction to Bulgakov's writings
In an ukaz of 24 August 1935 of Met. Sergius, Bulgakov’s teaching on ‘Sophia’ was described as ‘alien’ to the Orthodox faith. This ukaz was largely based on the epistolary reports of Alexis Stavrovsky. He was also the president of the Brotherhood of St Photius (Alexis Stavrovskii was president;
Vladimir Lossky, the vice-president, and Evgraf Kovalevskii
of Saint-Denis) were also among the 12-15 young laymen who made up its numbers> whose members had left the jurisdiction of Met. Evlogy for that of Met. Elevthery of Lithuania. This exodus was in reaction to Met. Sergius having removed, on 10 June 1930, Met. Evlogy as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe (since Met. Evlogy had continually refused to agree to the 30 June 1927 Declaration of Loyalty to the Soviet government) and named Elevthery as his replacement. In late 1935, Met. Evlogy appointed a commission to look into the charges of heresy levelled against Bulgakov.
The commission quickly broke into factions. In June 1936 the majority report (prepared by Vasilii Zenkovskii, Anton Kartashev and others) rejected the charge of heresy but had serious objections about Sophiology. The minority report of 6 July 1936 was prepared by Fr Sergei Chetverikov and signed by Fr Georges Florovsky, who despite his personal respect for Fr. Sergius, remained an ardent critic of Sophianism for the remainder of his life. Meanwhile, the Church Abroad formally accused Bulgakov of heresy in 1935.
was based on Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar’s Novoe uchenie o Sofii (Sofia, 1935), as well as on the arguments of St. John (Maximovitch). St. John, in his book The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God, discusses at length why the sophianism of Sergius Bulgakov is heresy, specifically one as destructive as Nestorianism. Speaking of those who attempt to deify the Theotokos, he wrote:
:In the words [of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov], when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the Virgin Mary, she acquired "a dyadic life, human and divine; that is, She was completely deified, because in Her hypostatic being was manifest the living, creative revelation of the Holy Spirit" (Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov, The Unburnt Bush, 1927, p. 154). "She is a perfect manifestation of the Third Hypostasis" (Ibid., p. 175), "a creature, but also no longer a creature" (P. 19 1)....But we can say with the words of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus: "There is an equal harm in both these heresies, both when men demean the Virgin and when, on the contrary, they glorify Her beyond what is proper" (Panarion, Against the Collyridians). This Holy Father accuses those who give Her an almost divine worship: "Let Mary be in honor, but let worship be given to the Lord" (same source). "Although Mary is a chosen vessel, still she was a woman by nature, not to be distinguished at all from others. Although the history of Mary and Tradition relate that it was said to Her father Joachim in the desert, 'Thy wife hath conceived,' still this was done not without marital union and not without the seed of man" (same source). "One should not revere the saints above what is proper, but should revere their Master. Mary is not God, and did not receive a body from heaven, but from the joining of man and woman; and according to the promise, like Isaac, She was prepared to take part in the Divine Economy. But, on the other hand, let none dare foolishly to offend the Holy Virgin" (St. Epiphanius, "Against the Antidikomarionites"). The Orthodox Church, highly exalting the Mother of God in its hymns of praise, does not dare to ascribe to Her that which has not been communicated about Her by Sacred Scripture or Tradition. "Truth is foreign to all overstatements as well as to all understatements. It gives to everything a fitting measure and fitting place" (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov)."
Fr. Sergei's reply and the episcopal conference, 1937
Bulgakov responded to the heresy accusation in his Dokladnaia zapiska Mitropolitu Evlogiiu prof. prot. Sergiia Bulgakova (Paris, 1936). Archbishop Seraphim then rebutted Bulgakov in his Zashchita sofianskoi eresi (Sofia, 1937). No final report was prepared on the sophiology controversy by the commission set up by Bulgakov’s own jurisdiction. However, Met. Evlogy convoked a bishop’s conference on 26–29 November 1937 to bring closure to the matter. The bishops in their statement were working from reports by Archimandrite Cassian (Bezobrazov) and Chetverikov and they concluded that the accusations of heresy against Bulgakov were unfounded but that his theological opinions showed serious flaws and needed correction.
Bibliography
Notes
Bulgakov, Sergei (1969) Father Sergius Bulgakov, 1871-1944: a collection of articles. London: Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, [1969]
See also
Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov
Pavel Florensky
Theophilus of Antioch
Sophiology
Imiaslavie
External links
Sergei Bulgakov (in Russian)
«Vekhi» (in Russian)
«Unfading Light» (in Russian)
Sergius Bulgakov Society - Extensive collection of links to Bulgakov resources
Bulgakov Discussion Group - An informal network for the study of the life and work of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov
Bulgakov LiveJournal - A review of Russian religious philosophy and contemporary integral thought
Sergius Bulgakov in Orthodox Wiki
Category:1871 births
Category:1944 deaths
Category:Eastern Orthodox priests
Category:Moscow State University alumni
Category:Russian philosophers
Category:Russian theologians
Category:Russian Orthodox Christians
Category:Soviet expellees
Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia
Category:Eastern Orthodox theologians
Category:Sophiology
Category:Christian mystics
