Abstract
In this paper I present Bulgakov’s conception of the sophiology of death considered, first, as a science of God’s Wisdom and, second, as the content of Bulgakov’s work entitled “Sophiology of Death.”
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Notes
The bibliography of Sergei Bulgakov’s works issued by the Institute for Slavic Studies in Paris in 1984 comprises 413 entries, and since then other previously unpublished works have appeared. See Naumov (1984).
Lev Zander (1893–1964) was a philosopher, an activist in the international ecumenical movement, and a close friend and associate of Bulgakov. In 1948 he published a two volume monograph (so far the most comprehensive such work) on the work of the philosopher. See Zander (1948).
The first dogmatic trilogy: Kupina Neopalimaja, Drug Ženikha, Lestvitsa Jakovlja. The second trilogy comprises the works: Agnets Božij, Utiešitel, Nevesty Agntsa.
The most important are: Ipostas’ i ipostasnost’, Glavy o troičnosti, O Sofii Premudrosti Božijej, Dogmat i Dogmatika.
The most important: Bogoslovie Evangelista Bogoslova, O čudesakh evangelskikh, Krest Bogomateri, Piotr i Ioan, Syn Pogibalny, Protokoly seminarija “Novozavetnoye učnije v Tsarstwe Božijem”.
The first text to be quoted here should be the one which is the most important for us that is Sofiologija smerti. The others are: Problema uslovnogo bezsmertija, Strašnyj sud nad čelovekom, kak razdelenjye w nëm, Očerki učenija o Tserkvi, Evkharističeskjj dogmat, Khristos w mire.
See Smert’ Khristova sošestviye v ad, in Bulgakov (1933), pp. 402–408. In this chapter Bulgakov writes about the death of Christ as an act of kenosis, that death is a free act, without which there would be no resurrection.
Bulgakov (1991), p. 20.
He described it in Bulgakov (1991), pp. 40–42.
The full text of Sofiologija smerti (1939) was published in Vestnik RChD no. 127, IV-1978, pp. 18–41.
Although Monachinia Elena writes that the illness started in 1929 and adds that 10 years later Bulgakov underwent throat surgery, it seems that Zander was right when he wrote that Bulgakov’s illness began in 1926. The philosopher himself seems to confirm it when he entitles one of the chapters of Avtobiografičeskije zametki “My illness (January 1926).” Cf. Bulgakov (1991), p. 136.
References
Bulgakov, S. N. (1933). Agnets Božiy. O Bogočelovečestve. Čast’ I. Paris: YMCA-PRESS.
Bulgakov, S. N. (1978). „Sofiologija smierti“. Vestnik RChD. no 127.
Bulgakov, S. V. (2001). Svet Nevečernyj. Moskow: Izdatel’stvo FOLIO.
Bułgakov, S. N. (1991). Avtobiografičeskije zamietki. Paris: YMCA-PRESS.
Monachinia, E. (1977). Professor protorijej Sergij Bulgakov (1871–1944). In: S. N. Bulgakov (Ed.), Dva grada. Issledovaniya o prirode obščestvennykh idealov. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’lstvo RHGI.
Naumov, K. (Ed.). (1984). Bibliographie des oeuvres de Serge Boulgakov. Paris: INSTITUT D’ÉTUDES SLAVES.
Zander, L. A. (1948). Bog i mir (Mirosozertsanie ottsa Sergija Bulgakova). Paris: YMCA PRESS.
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Kiejzik, L. Sergei Bulgakov’s sophiology of death. Stud East Eur Thought 62, 55–62 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9101-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-010-9101-3