Building the House of Wisdom. Sergii Bulgakov and Contemporary Theology: New Approaches and Interpretations

Sergii Bulgakov (1871–1944) is one of the preeminent theologians of the 20th century whose work is still being discovered and explored in and for the 21st. A famous rival of Lenin in the field of economics, and, according to Wassily Kandinsky, “one of the deepest experts on religious life” in early twentieth-century Russian art and culture, Bulgakov, economist, publicist, politician, and later Orthodox theologian and priest, became a significant “global player” in both the Orthodox diaspora and the Ecumenical movement in the interwar period.
This anthology gathers a collection of papers given at the international conference on the occasion of Bulgakov’s 150th birthday at the University of Fribourg in September 2021. The chapters, written by established Bulgakov specialists, not least the keynote speaker Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury (2002–2012), as well as young researchers from different theological disciplines and ecclesiastical traditions, explore Bulgakov’s contribution to meeting the challenges of the modern world and to building bridges between East and West. The authors bring forth a wide range of new creative ways to critically engage with Bulgakov’s theological worldview and cover topics such as personhood, ecology, political theology and trinitarian ontology.


Table of Contents

Barbara Hallensleben / Regula M. Zwahlen / Aristotle Papanikolaou / Pantelis Kalaitzidis
Building the House of Wisdom. Editors' Introduction
p. 11–24
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Personhood and Anthropology

Rowan Williams
Sergii Bulgakov's Christology and Beyond
p. 25–42
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David Bentley Hart
Masks, Chimaeras, and Portmanteaux: Sergii Bulgakov and the Metaphysics of the Person
p. 43–62
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Mark McInroy
Bulgakov and Lot-Borodine as Shapers of Deification in the West
p. 63–76
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Ivan Ilin
“Transcende te ipsum”: Faith, Prayer and Name-Worship in Bulgakov's Unfading Light
p. 77–90
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Sarah Elizabeth Livick-Moses
The Kenotic Iconicity of Sergii Bulgakov's Divine-Humanity: Doctrinal, Anthropological, and Feminist Considerations
p. 91–106
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Jack Louis Pappas
Sergii Bulgakov's Fragile Absolute: Kenosis, Difference, and Positive Disassociation
p. 107–122
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Deborah Casewell
The Authenticity of Creativity: The Philosophical and Theological Anthropologies of Nikolai Berdiaev and Sergei Bulgakov
p. 123–136
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Justin Shaun Coyle
Bulgakov on Mangodhood – or, Satan after Schelling
p. 137–152
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Politics, Economy, and Ecology

Catherine Evtuhov / Regula M. Zwahlen
Seven Days of Narod: Sergei Bulgakov's Christian Socialist Newspaper
p. 153–176
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Nikos Kouremenos
Is It All the Greeks' Fault? Reconsidering the Byzantine Legacy in Sergius Bulgakov's By the Walls of Cherson
p. 177–192
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Alexei P. Kozyrev
“The Sophia Dispute” in the Context of Political Ontology
p. 193–208
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Antoine Arjakovsky
Sophiology and Personalism, Foundations of the New Political Science in the Twenty-First Century
p. 209–220
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Nathaniel Wood
Sergii Bulgakov's Chalcedonian Politics of Personhood
p. 221–234
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Dionysios Skliris
The World as the Household of Wisdom: Political Theology and Philosophy of Economy
p. 235–246
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Tikhon Vasilyev
Rethinking the Language of Economics as a Systematic Christian Response to Economic and Ecological Crises in the Thought of Sergii Bulgakov
p. 247–258
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Austin Foley Holmes
Bulgakov's Ecology
p. 259–274
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Sophiology

Liubov A. Petrova
The Reception of Palamite Theology in the Sophiology of Sergii Bulgakov
p. 275–288
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Natalia Vaganova
An Unfinished Dispute. How is it Possible to Criticize Bulgakov's Sophiology at the Present Time?
p. 289–300
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Joshua Heath
Sophiology, Ascesis and Prophecy
p. 301–316
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Dario Colombo
Mariology as Personalized Sophiology. Sergii Bulgakov's Chalcedonian Theology
p. 317–330
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Paul L. Gavrilyuk
The Training for Dying and Death: A New Reading of Bulgakov's Sophiology
p. 331–350
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Creation and Ontology

Caleb Henry
Sergii Bulgakov's Early Marxism: A Narrative of Development
p. 351–364
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Taylor Ross
Creatio ex sapientia in Bulgakov's Unfading Light: The Influence of F. W. J. Schelling
p. 365–380
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Brandon Gallaher
Sergii Bulgakov's Chalcedonian Ontology and the Problem of Human Freedom
p. 381–408
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Antonio Bergamo
Sergii Bulgakov: Between Kenotic Theology of the Event and Trinitarian Ontology
p. 409–418
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Nikolaos Asproulis
From Social Trinity to “Linguistic Trinity”: Sergii Bulgakov's Contribution to Analytic Theology
p. 419–434
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John Milbank
Sergii Bulgakov: From Grammar to Wisdom
p. 435–462
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Ecumenical Perspectives

Pavel Khondzinsky
Father Sergii Bulgakov's “Karamazov's excursus”
p. 463–474
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Graham McGeoch
Ships in the Theological Night? Sergius Bulgakov and Liberation Theology
p. 475–488
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Oliver Dürr
“Your Labor Is Not in Vain.” Sergii Bulgakov's Sophiology as a Key to a (Protestant) Theology of the Kingdom of God
p. 489–500
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Paul Ladouceur
Sergius Bulgakov and Modern Theology
p. 501–520
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Adalberto Mainardi
The Vision of Unity. The Ecumenical Thought of Fr. Sergii Bulgakov
p. 521–534
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List of Contributors
p. 535–536