Sergius Bulgakov: A Bulgakov Anthology -- A Review

SERGIUS BULGAKOV: A Bulgakov Anthology. Edited by Nicolas Zernov and James Pain. Memoir by Lev Zander. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2012. Xxv + 193 pages.

For the past several years I've been intrigued by Orthodox theology, especially the works of people like the Cappadocians (4^th century), Gregory Palamas (14^th century), and Vladimir Lossky (20^th century). Eastern theologians offer a trajectory different from the western one dominated by Augustine. The way they speak of the Trinity and salvation, for example, offers a different perspective that I've found helpful at points. Now, I'm not interested in converting to Eastern Orthodoxy, though many Protestants have headed in that direction in recent years. My reasons for looking to the East are rooted in my search for theological enrichment. I've found much value in this engagement. While I’ve found Lossky and Alexander Schmemann helpful, I’ve also found myself intrigued by Sergius Bulgakov and his embrace of Sophiology. I will confess that I’ve also found Bulgakov to be less accessible than his two contemporaries.

Like Lossky and Schmemann, Bulgakov was a Russian expatriate who ended up in Paris in the years after the Bolshevik revolution. Though he began his adult career as a Marxist political philosopher, he would return to the church and serve as the head of the St. Sergius Orthodox seminary in Paris. At a time when the Russian Orthodox Church and some who are related to it in some form are caught up in active or perhaps passive support of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, questions have been raised about Russian theologians and their vision of the church and theology. Of course, Bulgakov died in the 1940s, so he's not part of that conversation. Nevertheless, questions do arise about the nature of Russian Orthodox theology, which has proven influential in the west.

Bulgakov is known for embracing the concept of "Sophiology." Sophia is the Greek term for wisdom, and is an important theological piece, for speaking of the wisdom of God. Bulgakov, of course, is not unique in his interest in Sophia, which for example serves as an important component of feminist theology. Because Sophia is often understood to be a feminine term, it can give voice to the concerns of those who, rightfully so, believe that theology is couched too often in masculine imagery. While Bulgakov was not a feminist and feminist theology wasn’t the focus of his use of Sophia, it could prove useful in that conversation.

I have read several of Bulgakov's books, and have often struggled to make sense of his vision. Nevertheless, he remains an important figure. David Bentley Hart considers him “the single greatest theological mind produced by Eastern Christianity after the time of Maximus the Confessor” [Hart, Tradition and Apocalypse, p. 181]. Whether that is a consensus view, it does suggest that Bulgakov is someone we should take seriously. Sometimes it’s helpful to turn to an anthology of works to get a sense of one’s theological viewpoints. Fortunately, there is such a thing available to those who would benefit from encountering his insights.

The Bulgakov Anthology that I’m highlighting in this review was originally published by S.P.C.K. in 1976 and republished by Wipf and Stock as part of their reprint program in 2012. Now, I normally don’t write reviews of books that were published a decade or so earlier. That wasn’t my intention when I requested a review copy of this anthology, but apparently, in my delight at seeing another Bulgakov work to explore, I seem to have read the date wrong. For some reason, I thought this was a new edition of Bulgakov's works published in 2022. While I was wrong in my reading of the copyright date, the book is worth highlighting as it serves as a helpful introduction to Bulgakov and his works as it includes among other things excerpts from his major works that have been translated into English in recent years, along with memoirs and a selection of his sermons.

This anthology of Bulgakov’s works includes his memoiristic reflections, but also a helpful introduction to his life and work by James Pain, as well as a memoir by Lev Zander. What we learn from the introductory materials is that Sergius Bulgakov was the son of a Russian Orthodox priest and a descendent of priests tracking back six generations. Though he was sent to a seminary as a youth, in the course of his studies he lost his faith and ultimately embraced Marxism (before the Revolution). Over time, he became a political economist and taught at several institutions in Russia and Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). At the end of the 19th century, when he was in his mid-20s, he began to have spiritual stirrings that eventually led to his rejection of Marxism and reembrace the church. In time he would be ordained to the priesthood. He began writing on theological subjects as early as the late nineteenth century. Still teaching political economics, after the Revolution, he was sent from Moscow to teach in Crimea, and then in the mid-1920s, he was forced to flee Russia for the west. He landed in Paris where he joined the faculty and became dean of the St. Sergius Seminary, still one of the preeminent Orthodox schools.

Since this is an anthology, it provides us with a selection of readings from works published throughout his lifetime. These examples of his work begin with a set of autobiographical notes, that leads from conversion to the approach of death from throat cancer. He shares about his conversion, his spiritually transformative visit to the Hagia Sophia, his views of the episcopate and the institutional church (this brief selection is quite revealing), and finally a word about his path toward death from throat cancer in 1944. The piece I found most fascinating from the autobiographical section was the reflection on the Episcopate, as he challenged the institutionalism of the church. He doesn't reject episcopacy, but he emphasizes his belief that tradition needs to remain vital. It is the foundation, but it's not the final word. Thus, there is a place for apocalypse in one’s theological understanding, for it is a movement into the future.

Part 2 of A Bulgakov Anthology provides us with three readings that he published around 1903.  The first provides us with a glimpse of his “Economic Ideals.” This exhibits his move from Marxism to a more spiritual view of the world. Thus, he writes that “spiritual decadence involved in luxury sooner or later leads to material decadence as well, so that economically, too, luxury is self-condemned.” He notes that “virtue is always won and built up only through moral struggle, and if it be our lot to struggle chiefly against destitution and all kinds of tyranny, future generations will have to struggle against, among other things, wealth and luxury. Wealth merely builds up the walls of civilization, but within these walls it may enclose either a bright temple or a house of ill fame” (p. 85). There is a reflection on Dostoevsky's character Ivan Karamozov, who serves Bulgakov as a philosophical type. There is also a brief study of the 19th-century Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, who provided the philosophical foundation for became Bulgakov's Sophiology. From there we move in section three, titled Signposts: 1909, to a piece on heroism and otherworldliness. Then in section four—Two Cities: 1911—we encounter a piece on Marx as a religious type and one titled "Two Cities." This is a reflection on the city of God and cities of the earth, which is similar to Augustine's work, except he brings Marx into the picture. In Section 5 we encounter two essays from 1918, after the Russian Revolution, titled Quiet Thoughts. One essay offers a reflection on his viewing of a Picasso exhibit and is titled “The Corpse of Beauty.” The other is titled “A Professorial Religion,” in which he reflects on Protestantism, which he calls a “professorial religion.” 

When we get to Section 6, we are introduced to his “Doctrinal Works: 1926-44.” Here we encounter excerpts from his more mature theological works, most of which have now been translated into English. These excerpts give us insight into his Christology, soteriology, and pneumatology. Some of the excerpts are longer than others, but together they provide us with a sense of Bulgakov's emerging theology. One of those excerpts titled here "The Wisdom of God" serves as the introduction to the book now in an English translation with the title Sophia: The Wisdom of God:An Outline of Sophiology. I found this excerpt (and the book which I’ve since read) very helpful in gaining a better understanding of what Bulgakov means by “sophiology,” which is Bulgakov's greatest contribution to modern Orthodoxy. By reading these excerpts one not only gets an introduction to some of his work but perhaps a bit of inspiration to explore that particular doctrinal work.

Finally, in sections 7 and 8 we encounter six of Bulgakov's sermons. Section 7 offers to us a sermon from 1934 originally preached in the United States in English under the title "Social Teaching in Modern Russian Orthodox Theology." In this sermon, Bulgakov calls for the development of a Christian humanism as an alternative to a secular version. In doing this he speaks of the Christian life in terms of a common and social dimension as opposed to an individualistic one, though this is to be done without "violating the principle of Christian freedom. It must be unity in freedom and love." (p. 166). One might wonder if the current Russian Orthodox Church exhibits that vision of Christian humanism. Then in section 8, we read six Festival Sermons. There is a sermon on the power of the cross, penitence, “Divine Gladness,” Pentecost, and finally one on divine glory.

I read these pieces from Bulgakov, most of which appeared originally in Russian and only later translated into English after his death in 1944, with an eye to the present. I see in Bulgakov a forward-looking thinker who embraces tradition in the service of an emerging future. This is important because we're seeing the United States' significant conversion to Orthodoxy from conservative Protestantism. Many are moving to orthodoxy because it's believed to be static, offering adherents absolute and unchanging truth on which to hang one’s faith. As I read Bulgakov, that isn’t his vision of Orthodoxy or that of many of his compatriots, even if they might differ with him over his Sophiology.

As a non-Orthodox Protestant minister/theologian—thus as an adherent of that “professorial religion” that offers a witness to truth but through a “consistent revelation of error” (p. 76)—I've come to believe that the Eastern churches have much to offer the west. They make this offering not as a static repository but as an important resource that can help us move forward into the future when Christ will be all in all. While this is not a new publication, for those who have yet to encounter Bulgakov, this Anthology might be a good place to start. Then try out some of his other works. I wish I had done that!