Sergii Bulgakov, Socialism, and the Church
- Writer: Rowan Williams
- Notes: 72 pages, 14X20
- Editor: Volos Academy Publications
- ISBN: 9786188645301
- Year: 2023
The “Christian Socialist” period of Sergei Bulgakov included, literally speaking, his failed involvement in the political affairs of Russia in the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century. He continued to deal with the topic, trying to comprehend socialism as a phenomenon not strictly political but rather spiritual, and also trying to set the first theological conditions for Christian political witness. Throughout his life in exile, he insisted on his criticism of the simple political reaction and of the nostalgia for an authoritarian monarchy. Socialism, for him, had come to form a model of human self-understanding, which refuses to accept the reality of the Church. Bulgakov’s argument seems to be that the “socialist” mentality that underlies a series of twentieth-century phenomena presupposes a specific anthropology and can easily be regarded as possessing absolute power. It is this belief
that provides the pseudo-religious dimension that Bulgakov sees as the soul of modern anthropology and against which he identifies the need for resistance from the side of theology and ecclesiastical practice. This is a perspective that has remained relevant for almost a hundred years since the publication of the texts under discussion.
Rowan Williams has recently retired as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Prior
to that, he taught theology in Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Yale, and has written widely in theology, spirituality and contemporary issues. He had been Archbishop of Canterbury (2002-2012), where he worked hard to avoid fragmentation over disagreements on contemporary issues, such as same-sex marriages and the ordination of women. His original research focus was on Russian religious thought. His most recent works include: Justice and Love: A Philosophical Dialogue(with Mary Zournazi), and Looking East in Winter .
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