<scp>B</scp> ulgakov, <scp>S</scp> ergei <scp>N</scp> ikolaevich (1871–1944)

Sergei Bulgakov was the most prominent thinker of the Russian Silver Age that immediately preceded the Revolutions of 1917, and after his emigration to Paris in 1925, he went on to become the most original, and probably the most widely known, Russian philosopher and theologian living in the west. He was born the son of an Orthodox priest, and the heir of distinguished priestly lineages on both maternal and paternal sides of his family. He grew up with a strong attachment to nature, and a spiritual orientation that he described as “a child&#39;s Christian ‘pantheism’.” He began seminary training at the age of 13, but within a few years had lost his faith in God, and shifted his allegiance to Marxism and the longing for “an earthly paradise,” yielding, as he later put it, to “the temptation to worship man.” He eventually became an economist holding a prestigious chair in agricultural economics — adapting Marx to the largely agrarian economy of Russia — and a politician who served in the Second Duma, or Russian parliament, of 1906. Along with many of the Russian intelligentsia, Bulgakov — having published in 1900 a major work called Capitalism and Agriculture — became disillusioned by the poor fit of Marxist economics to Russian reality, and disenchanted with the political irresponsibility of the left. Together with N. Berdyaev, he edited in 1909 an influential collection of articles called Vekhi or Landmarks: A Collection of Essays on the Russian Intelligentsia, which sought to articulate a vision for Russia more indigenous than the failed revolutionary politics. Published in 1912, The Philosophy of Economy represents Bulgakov&#39;s major work as a philosopher, finalizes his break with Marxist political economy, and establishes the philosophical grounds for his later work as a theologian. Drawing upon both Orthodox mysticism and German Idealism, especially Schelling, he develops a deeply ecological vision of creation as natura naturans, as revealing divine energies, as divine wisdom (Sophia) at work. Meanwhile, through his experiences of numinous beauty in nature and art, and a mysterious visit to the hermitage of a staretz or spiritual elder — all of these (nature, art, and Church) being vital elements of his later concept of Sophia — he recovered his Orthodox faith, being ordained a priest 1918. He was exiled from Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1922, and continued his academic life at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, as both Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Founding Dean, until 1944 when, according to those present, he died as a saint. Keywords: Bulgakov, Sergei Nikolaevich (1871–1944); prominent thinker, of the Russian silver age; Russian philosopher, theologian, living in the west; vekhi or landmarks: a collection of essays … intelligentsia; the philosophy of economy, Bulgakov&#39;s major work; orthodox mysticism and German idealism; ecological vision of creation, as natura naturans; Bulgakov&#39;s the unfading light, manifest in “cosmodicy”; ancient truths of orthodoxy, prism of modern culture