BULGAKOV, SERGII NICOLAJEVIČ. — Renowned Russian religious thinker and dissident theologian, born into a priestly family in 1871, died in 1944. Initially a Marxist, like his friend Berdyaev, he later returned to the Christian faith. Ordained a priest in 1918, he was expelled from Russia and settled in Prague in 1923, then in Paris from 1925, where until his death he served as dean and effectively head of the Russian Orthodox theological institute. He worked toward rapprochement between Anglicans and Russian dissenters. As a writer, he was highly prolific, first in philosophy and political economy, and later in theology, in which field he was self-taught. His entire religious doctrine is permeated by sophisticated speculations on Divine Wisdom, drawing on the Russians V. Soloviev and Florensky, as well as German idealists and the Palamites, among others. Because of this doctrine, he was condemned by the Moscow dissenting Church in 1935 and by that of Karlovci in Yugoslavia.
A scholar of the Fathers, Bulgakov often interprets them too liberally. He frequently attacks Catholic dogmas, and although his thoughts are sometimes profound and suggestive, they often lack logical coherence.
Among his numerous books, the following should be noted: *La luce senza tramonto* [The Light Without Sunset], Moscow 1917; the "Trilogy" on Divine Humanity: 1) *L’Agnello di Dio* [The Lamb of God], Paris 1933 (French trans., ibid. 1943); 2) *Il Consolatore* [The Comforter], ibid. 1936 (French trans., ibid. 1947); 3) *La Sposa dell’Agnello* [The Bride of the Lamb], ibid. 1945; *L’Orthodoxie*, ibid. 1932; *The Wisdom of God*, London 1937. Bulgakov’s Christological doctrine was judged by Th. Spáčil in “Nova opinio auctoris orthodoxi de unione hypostatica” (*Orient. Christ. Periodica*, I [1935], pp. 53–92).