Seventy years since his death
The present article constitutes a brief reference to the life and work of Sergei Bulgakov, on attaining seventy years since his death.
Sergei Bulgakov was born on 16 July 1871
in the town of Livny,
south of Moscow. Although he was raised in a religious ambience, he, in the
beginning of his spiritual course, espoused Marxism and more so under the form
of the so called ‘Legal Marxism’movement.
Bulgakov’s first
publication is entitled “The Significance of the Market in the Capitalist
Production System” (1897). Discussing the possibility of the development of capitalism in
Russia as a transition stage towards a socialist economy, Bulgakov accepts the
necessity of the capitalist evolution, mainly on the issue of agricultural
production. However, this stance contradicts the views of both the narodniki
(=populists) as well as those of the consistent Marxists. The main work of this
era is the two-volume Capitalism and Agriculture (St
Petersburg, 1900). It is hereby noted that his effort to interpret the problems
of agriculture according to the Marxism categories, made him realize the
limitations of the Marxist theory and its inapplicability to this special
sector of the economy. This was a ‘from the inside’ criticism of Marxism (L.
Zander, “Memoir”, in vol. Sergius
Boulgakov, A Bulgakov anthology, ed. J. Pain-N. Zernov, Philadelphia, 1976,
p. xxi).
Then we come to the
second phase of Bulgakov’s course, which, chronologically speaking, should be
placed, between 1905 and 1917. Bulgakov is now a Professor of Political Economy
in the University of Kiev and in the University of Moscow. The Revolution of
1905 constitutes an important landmark of the era as its ideological roots lie,
up to a certain degree, on the notions of the ‘Legal Marxists’. It is at this
exact period that Bulgakov, under the influence of the German idealism, rejects
the anthropological and the social expression of the Marxist world view. Hence,
the Russian author contradicts the notion of the individual as an economic unit
and the identification of the individual’s psychology to the psychology of the
class. One of the first main texts of this period, published in 1906, is
entitled Karl Marx as a Religious Type (D. Baltas, trans. in Greek,
Athos, Athens 2004). Some of the works of this era that need to be mentioned
are the two-volume article collection entitled‘From Marxism to Idealism’ (St
Peterburg, 1903), the also two-volume article collection‘Two cities. Investigations into the nature of social
ideals’ (Moscow, 1911),
the celebrated thesis under the title The Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household
(Moscow, 1912) and the massive The Unfading Light: contemplations and speculations
(Moscow, 1917), which is a notable contribution to religious philosophy.
Finally, the volume ‘Quiet Thoughts’, which includes articles dated between
1911 and 1915, can be traced in the same era. (One of these articles, having
been translated, is included in my volume Russian
Philosophers, 19th -20th century, Savalas ed., Athens
2002, pp. 54-67, in greek).
The last phase of
Bulgakov’s spiritual development begins after the Russian Revolution of 1917
and is completed at the end of his life. Although Bulgakov does not especially
investigate the nature of the Revolution of 1917, not in the sense that N.
Berdyaev (1874-1948) does for example, a profound change in his life and
thought has taken place, which is also reflected in his decision to enter
priesthood. It is known that he was ordained an Orthodox Church priest in June
1918 in the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, in the presence of a few distinguished
friends, such as P. Florensky, N. Berdyaev et al. However, this fact does not
necessarily mean a transition from philosophy to theology. It is more accurate,
I believe, to maintain that Bulgakov is both a philosopher who theologizes and
a theologian who philosophizes as well. Indeed, what creates an impression is
Bulgakov’s enthusiasm during the era when he was a Marxist as well as when he
returned to the Orthodox Church. Then he went to the University of Simferopol
in Crimea until 1st January 1923, when he was exiled. It was then,
in Yalta in 1922, that he wrote Sous les remparts de Chersonese published
in French in 1999.
From 1925 until 1944,
the Russian thinker teaches the orthodox doctrine at the Institut de Theologie
Orthodoxe Saint-Serge in Paris. It is mentioned that when he arrived at St
Sergius “…he was known as the Marxist economist rather than the newly converted
and ordained. That is why there was a lot of reaction against his appointment
at the Institute, although most of his supporters were strongly anticommunist
Russian immigrants” (Θ. Σταύρου, «Σεργκέϊ Μπολυλγκάκωφ», Θρηκσευτική καί Ἠθική Ἐγκυκλοπαίδεια, τ. 9, 187). Of course,
later on, Bulgakov was a respectful figure who dominated St Sergius for many
years. In this – the third – phase of his spiritual development, Bulgakov
publishes two trilogies of doctrinal content: a. The
Burning Bush: On the Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God (Paris,
1927, in Russian), ‘The Friend of the Bridegroom: On the Orthodox Veneration
of the Forerunner’, (Paris, 1927), Jacob’s ladder: on angels (Paris,
1929) and b. ‘Le Paraclet (Paris,
1936), The Incarnate Word
(Paris, 1943), ‘The Bride of the Lamb’ (Paris, 1945). Also another work of this
era is the concise work L’Orthodoxie (Paris, 1932). Apart from these, the
following works are of a special philosophical interest: Die Tragodie der Philosophie
(Darmstadt, 1927), which refers to the dialectics of the 19th
century German philosophy, The
Wisdom of God. A brief summary of sophiology (London, 1937), in
which Bulgakov briefly alludes to his sophiological theory, and finally Philosophy of the Name,
(L’Age d’Homme, Lozanne, 1991) which constitutes Bulgakov’s important
contribution to language philosophy.
For
the record, it should be mentioned that Bulgakov also visited Greece in 1936
when he participated in a Pan Orthodox Congress in Athens. Three years later,
father Sergei was stricken “by cancer of the larynx, but after two surgeries he
escaped the danger; he lost his voice though and survived until 12thJune
1944” (Η.
Mastrogiannopoulos, Θεολογικές Παρουσίες,
Athens, 1986, p. 57).