Sergey Bulgakov and Georges Florovsky: The Task of Relating God and Creation

Vyacheslav LYTVYNENKO

Abstract


A Sergey Bulgakov and Georges Florovsky belong to the same Eastern Orthodox tradition and often use the same terminology in their works, they speak two different languages and have vastly different theologies. In this article, I will seek to show that the way these two thinkers responded to the challenges of their time and appropriated their theological and philosophical sources led them to two different conceptions of God and creation. To narrow down my focus, I will concentrate specifically on several sophiological works of Bulgakov and Florovsky’s writings on God and creation. Based on my discussion of these authors, I will conclude with a few suggestions for the Evangelical audience, encouraging us in further reflection on the issues of relating God and creation and appropriating the sources of our theology as we seek to make our message relevant today.

Keywords


Sergei Bulgakov; George Florovsky; Theology; God and creation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Arjakovsky, Antoine, «The Sophiology of Father Sergius Bulgakov and Contemporary Western Theology», St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 1$2, 2005.

Bulgakov, Sergey, The Wisdom of God. A Brief Summary of Sophiology (New York: Williams and Norgate, 1937).

_______, Sophia: the Wisdom of God (New York: Lindisfarne Press, 1993).

_______, The Bride of the Lamb (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002)

_______, Svet nevechernii (Moscow: Put’, 1917; repr. Westmead, Eng.: Gregg, 1971).

_______, Filosofiia khoziastva (Moscow: Put’, 1912; repr. Westmead, Eng.: Gregg, 1971; Moscow: Nauka, 1990).

_______, “Neskol’ko zamechanii po povodu stat’i G. I. Chulkov o poezii Vl. Solov’eva,” Voprosy zhizni 6 (1905): 293-303.

Copleston, Frederick, A History of Russian Philosophy, vol. 10 (New York: Continuum, 1986, repr. 2003).

Florovsky, Georges, The Ways of Russian Theology, Part I (Belmont: Norland, 1979), CW, vol. 5, Part II (Vaduz, Liechtenstein: Buchvertriebsanstalt, 1987).

_______, Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View, The Collected Works, vol. 1 (Belmont: Nordland Publishing Company, 1972), 107.

_______, «L’idee de la creation dans la philosophie chretienne», Logos: Revue Internationale de la Synthese Orthodoxe 1 (1928): 3-30.

Groberg, Kristi, «The Feminine Occult Sophia in the Russian Religious Renaissance: A Bibliographical Essay», Canadian-American Slavic Studies 26, nos. 1$4 (1992): 197-240.

Klimoff, Alexis, «Georges Florovsky and the Sophiological Controversy», St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 1-2 (2005):76.

Milbank, John, “Sophiology and Theurgy: the New Theological Horizon” at http://www.theologyphilosophycentre.co.uk/papers/Milbank_SophiologyTheurgy.pdf.

Papanikolaou, Aristotle, «Sophia! Orthoi! The Trinitarian Theology of Sergei Bulgakov», unpublished paper presented at Catholic Theological Society of America Conference on June 5th, 2009.

Sauve, Joseph Ross, Georges V. Florovsky and Vladimir N. Lossky: An Exploration, Comparison and Demonstration of their Unique Approaches to the Neopatristic Synthesis, Doctoral thesis, Durham University, 8. Available at E-Theses Online:http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/591/

Solovyev, Vladimir, Sobranie sochinenii, Collected Works, vol. 8 and 10 (Brussels, 1966).

Tanev, Stoyan, «ENERGEIA vs SOFIA», International Journal of Orthodox Theology 2:1 (2011): 15-71.

Valliere, Paul, «Russian Religious Thought and the Future of Orthodox Theology», St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 45:3 (2001):227-41.

Yakim, Boris, Introduction to The Bride of the Lamb (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).

Zenkovskii, Vasiliy, “Preodolenie platonizma i problema sofiinosti mira,” Put’ 24 (1930):3-40




DOI: https://doi.org/10.29357/issn.2521-179X.2014.15.209

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2014 Vyacheslav LYTVYNENKO

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS: EURO-ASIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY

ISSN 2521-179X (Online), ISSN 2415-783X (Print)