Sergii Bulgakov and the Task of Theology

Bulgakov's theology is not only a continuation of a tradition of Russian religious philosophy that he inherited, but is also an attempt to reconceive the task of theology in the West, where others (Barth and some Catholic theologians) also felt the need to break away from traditional patterns. Bulgakov's conception of theology is ecclesial, even priestly, rooted in his (at times, daily) celebration of the Divine Liturgy, and based on his reading of the Fathers of the Church. Theology grows out of a relationship with God experienced in prayer, especially liturgical prayer, and provides a `personalist' approach in contrast to the traditional `cosmological' approach and the modern `anthropological' approach (to use Balthasar's terms), but based on a notion of person as shaped by community, rather than person as individual. Finally this approach to theology is related to the notion of the Wisdom of God, `Sophia,' which throughout remained important to Bulgakov.