Sergei Bulgakov
Fr. Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (Russian:
Серге́й Никола́евич Булга́ков) (28 June [O.S. 16
June] 1871 - July 12, 1944) was a Russian
Orthodox theologian, philosopher and economist.
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
It should be noted that 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 "Sophianism".
Reaction to Bulgakov's writings
.Decree_of_the_Moscow_Patriarchate 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 <later "Jean-Nectaire
(Kovalevsky)".Jean-Nectaire_(Kovalevsky)_of_Saint-Denis.
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.
"The 1935 decision of the Church Abroad"
Decree_of_ROCOR. 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.
