BULGAKOV, SERGII NIKOLAEVIČ. - Celebrated Russian religious thinker and dissident theologian, b. of a priestly family in 1871, d. in 1944. He was first a Marxist, like his friend Berdyaev, but later returned to the Christian faith. Ordained a priest in 1918, he was expelled from Russia and settled in 1923 in Prague and from 1925 in Paris, where until his death he was dean and practically head of the Russian Institute of Orthodox Theology. He worked for the rapprochement of the Anglicans and the Russian dissidents. As a writer he was very prolific, first in the field of philosophy and political economy and later in that of theology. In this discipline he was self-taught. His entire religious doctrine is pervaded by Sophianic speculations, that is, concerning the Divine Wisdom, in which he depends on the Russians V. Soloviev and Florensky, and on the German idealists, as well as on the Palamites, etc. Because of this doctrine he was condemned by the dissident Church of Moscow in 1935 and by that of Karlovci in Yugoslavia.
A student of the Fathers, B. is often too liberal in his interpretation of them. He frequently attacks Catholic dogmas, and although his thoughts are sometimes very profound and suggestive, they often lack logic.
Among B.'s numerous books, mention should be made of: La luce senza tramonto, Moscow 1917; the "Trilogy" on divine humanity: 1) L'Agnello di Dio, Paris 1933 (French trans., ibid. 1943); 2) Il Consolatore, ibid. 1936 (French trans., ibid. 1947); 3) La Spana dell'Agnello, ibid. 1945; L'Orthodoxie, ibid. 1932; The Wisdom of God, London 1937. B.'s Christological doctrine was judged by Th. Spáčil: "Nova opinio auctoris orthodoxi de unione hypostatica" (Orient. Christ. Periodica, 1 [1935], pp. 53-92).
Bibliography2 works
Bernardo Schultze