Abstract
The recently translated The Sophiology of Death: Essays on Eschatology: Personal, Political, Universal illuminates the foundational themes of eschatology and political theology in Bulgakov’s theological vision. Amidst a growing interest in B.’s thought, De La Noval gifts interested readers of B. this unique collection of essays that brings to the fore B.’s keen devotion to the eschatological in some of his most explicit reflections on the topic.
Already present in his major trilogy, On God-Manhood (О Богочеловечестве), B.’s focus on the eschatological is not merely future-oriented, nor can it be reduced to the hope of a realized eschatology. Instead, it is a lived state of being that takes resurrection as its grounding category, passing all past, present, and future human activity through the filter of that ultimate and universal telos: union with God. This new volume concretizes B.’s eschatological methodology in his critical and self-conscious evaluation of socialism, imperialism, theologies of the kingdom of God, questions of apocatastasis, and what he calls the “sophiology of death.”
The collection ranges from highly speculative theology to questions of Christian praxis and political participation, with deeply personal expressions of B.’s own experience of death and dying present throughout. Additional essays on Augustine and predestination, conditional immortality, and the difficulty of theodicy provide interesting and challenging reflections on the question of divine and creaturely freedom in the context of salvation, although one might quibble with B.’s presentation of Augustine.
The simultaneous accessibility and rigor of the translation, as well as the editor’s selection and ordering of the texts, makes this a major contribution to the study of modern Russian religious philosophy and Orthodox theology in the English-speaking academy. It would be well suited to an advanced undergraduate course on political theology or eschatology, and an excellent supplemental text to accompany graduate studies of B.’s major dogmatic trilogy. Finally, this translation stands as a significant theological witness against the violence of the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate in their invasion of Ukraine and perpetuation of pусский мир ideology. The eschaton is not for B. established in the rejection of the world, but in the loving transfiguration of it. The tragedy and evil of death (especially violent death) may only be resolved in the light of the resurrection, which does not erase the mark of wounds, even as it heals them.