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he adopts Berdyaev’s system, with its dualistic implications. The most obvious
influence of Berdyaev on Men’s thinking here is in the absolute irrationality of
evil, the fact that rationality cannot attain an understanding of the origins of
evil by definition. This is an emphasis that runs through all of Men’s
discussions on the subject.
III. SERGEI BULGAKOV (1871-1944)
In common with Berdyaev and Solovyov, Bulgakov relates the Biblical story of
Creation and Fall to a higher pre-temporal existence. He refers to these stories
as representing a ‘meta-historical’ reality. His most extended discussion of the
topic can be found in his late work, The Bride of the Lamb.
We shall briefly consider Bulgakov’s views of science, the Fall and the
interplay of freedom, evil and meaning. We shall compare these conceptions to
those of Men, then summarise Men’s reception of Bulgakov.
Bulgakov was condemned as a heretic by the Moscow Patriarchate in
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1935, an act, which Men did not approve of. Although the major concern was
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Bulgakov’s sophiological understanding of creation, his evolutionary views
were also anathematised. This condemnation is not recognised by all Orthodox
churches, but it is still referred to by Russian Orthodox of the Moscow
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Patriarchate. Bulgakov’s evolutionary views are made explicit in the following:
‘To a literal interpretation of Genesis 3, however, is opposed the modern
scientific consciousness, which has been brought up on principles of
evolutionism’. 67
Further to this, we read on the same page: ‘Science utterly fails to find
traces of this original edenic state of man on earth and therefore considers the
very supposition of such a state to be incompatible with the empirical data’.
Bulgakov, like Berdyaev, believes this is not because the stories of Genesis 1-3
do not represent a reality, but because ‘the language of empirical history cannot
be used to represent meta-historical events’. Genesis 1-3 uses the language of
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symbols and myths and these are mythologies stored in the memory of
humankind as an ‘echo’ of prehistoric or meta-historical events. Bulgakov sees

64 Men, Lectures on Russian Religious Philosophy
65 A view developed from Solovyov's understanding of Wisdom – Men did not adhere to Bulgakov's
sophiology, but viewed it as a permissable theological opinion – Men, Lectures on Russian Religious
Philosophy
66 See Fr. Daniil Sysoev's list of Men's ‘heresies’
67 Bulgakov, Sergei. The Bride of the Lamb, p167. [Eerdmans. Grand Rapids. 2002]
68 Bulgakov, The Bride of the Lamb, p170

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