Message in a Bottle For the 21st Century? On the Occasion of Sergii Bulgakov’s 150th Birthday

Abstract

Sergii Bulgakov was a connoisseur of German culture, philosophy and theology and made early efforts to ensure the reception of his work in the German-speaking world. Especially within the ecumenical movement of the 1930s he tried to mediate between Protestant and Orthodox theology. He developed his “Sophiology” among other things as a constructive way out of the one-sided world affirmation of “liberal theology” as well as out of the equally one-sided world negation of “dialectical theology”. The doctrine of Sophia is based on the dogma of Chalcedon about God-humanity, which defines the right relation between the divine and the human nature, hence between God and his creation.

The Sergii Bulgakov Research Centre was founded in 2011 by Barbara Hallensleben at the University of Fribourg Switzerland and publishes German translations of his work under the academic direction of Regula M. Zwahlen. It aims to make Bulgakov’s complex work accessible to the public in German-speaking countries, especially in its references to the theology of Christian ecumenism.