by Andrew Kuiper Russian Sophiology has returned. For decades, speaking of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov or any of the Russian Sophiologists was usually to invoke a niche interest. Yet today, judging by translations and secondary literature, Fr. Bulgakov in particular has emerged as a force in systematic theology that far exceeds mere historical or confessional interest….
Continue readingOver a Beer with Barth and Bulgakov: Cosmodicy
by Regula M. Zwahlen In September 1930, two of the greatest Protestant and Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century—Karl Barth and Sergii Bulgakov—met in the Kornhauskeller in the Swiss capital, Berne.[1] Although an elegant restaurant today, the Kornhauskeller was a famous “drinking hole” in a vaulted cellar hall then, especially popular among students. The genius…
Continue readingSergii Bulgakov: Easter Thoughts
with commentary by Regula Zwahlen български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски This article was published in the first issue of the newspaper “Narod” (“People”), published in Kiev in April 1906, with Sergii Bulgakov and A. S. Glinka (Volzhsky) as editors. The newspaper “Narod” was conceived as a printed edition of…
Continue readingSergei Bulgakov and the Economics of Tradition
by Daniel Nicholas | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски Written in 1912, Sergei Bulgakov’s Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household surprises in its embrace of a certain kind of materialism. Giving credit largely to the heavyweights of the German idealist tradition with an occasional nod to Marx, it…
Continue readingBulgakov’s Theological Defense of Western Religious Art
An Orthodox Minority Report
by Roberto J. De La Noval | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски “Since the time of the Renaissance, the religious painting of the West has been one massive untruth.” So wrote Fr. Pavel Florensky in his Iconostasis, one of the most important works of 20th century Orthodox iconology. The…
Continue readingFather Sergius Bulgakov: Personhood, Inequality, and Economics
by Fr. Robert M. Arida | български | Ελληνικά | ქართული | Русский | Српски In a recent piece in the New York Times, Jamelle Bouie writes: Our society was built on the racial segmentation of personhood. Some people were full humans, guaranteed non-enslavement, secured from expropriation and given the protection of law, and some…
Continue readingThe Soviet Genealogy of “Orthodox Morality”
by Regula Zwahlen The term “Orthodox morality”—in combination with “traditional values”—is unquestionably a neologism. A passage from Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Genealogy of Morals” gets right to the point of Aristotle Papanikolaou’s recent essay on Public Orthodoxy: “We need a critique of moral values, the value of these values is […] to be called into question—and for…
Continue readingThe Death Penalty and Hell
by Roberto J. De La Noval | ру́сский “There is no doubt that on this point we are faced with a profound evolution of dogma.” These are the words of Pope Benedict XVI, from a 2015 interview, on the sharp contrast between the teaching of the Council of Trent on the postmortem fate of the…
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