Bulgakov and Sophiology?

[Jacob]

Friends,
What is the Orthodox Church's position on Fr Sergei Bulgakov? I realize he was condemned by one council, but some have told me that 1) Bulgakov wasn't saying what the council accused him of saying and 2) it was a local council done in extreme times.

I have read his book Sophia: An Outline of Sophiology, and some parts did make me cringe but others seemed okay.

[Eric Peterson]

His teaching of Sophiology was condemned as heretical by both the council of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia and the council of the Russian Orthodox Church based in Moscow--in essence the totality of the Russian Church. As a priest of the Russian Church, it does not appear that there was need to go further and involve other local churches since the heresy of Sophiology did not spread and infect other churches or very many other Orthodox Christians.

To my knowledge, Fr. Sergei did not recant and was not defrocked. It was the disorganization of the times, I think, that led to him not being disciplined, not the extremity of the times that led to the condemnation of his teaching.

There is another, older, thread on this same topic here, but I could not link it. Unfortunately, the conversation was confused and discussion ended.

Theological speculation, if I may opine, seems to me to be very, very rare amongst the Holy Fathers and in the Orthodox Christian tradition. It has often led to error, and, while a few (St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Gregory of Nyssa, for example) are numbered among the saints, some things which they wrote need qualification (St. Gregory) so that the reader will not misunderstand, or avoidance (St. Augustine) so that the reader will not be mistaken. Others (Origen and others) have gone so far as to be condemned because they strayed from the Orthodox teaching, which was not arrived at through human speculation, human reason, and human experience, but through divine revelation.

Theology, I believe very strongly, is not a subject to be studied like, for example history or mathematics, or even philosophy. Study it without spiritual preparation and supervision and you're playing with fire. To me, this goes triple for works which are obscure and speculative, and greatly moreso for works which have been condemned as heretical. Take care.

[Kusanagi]

Well if i remember correctly it was St John Maximovitch that found his writings were not according to the Orthodox Church and informed the Council about it.

It is mentioned in his book the Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Vladimir Lossky makes a number of critical comments about Fr Bulgakov's sophiology in his Mystical Theology.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Jacob]

Thank you all for your replies. I am not a proponent of Sophiology by any stretch. I asked because I had heard both positive and negative about Bulgakov.

Here is another question. Let's assume that Bulgakov is wrong per Sophia. Does this mean that his stuff on the Eucharist and on the Church is also wrong? I ask because I know a lot of Evangelicals who found his reasoning convincing and have since joined Orthodoxy.

[Nathaniel Woon]

Thanks for posing the question Jakob - I too would like to know where Bulgakov got things right. He has more than one book on Orthodoxy that is still in print.