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the edenic period as one preceding the current natural age and draws parallels
with the eschatological future age, which is equally inaccessible. In this respect,
he is far from Teilhard, who describes the organic ‘inner’ evolution of world
consciousness towards Omega. In Bulgakov, we see in common with the later
Solovyov a ‘descending’ rather than ‘ascending’ understanding of world history.
In Bulgakov’s writing this separation of ages is seen as a result of the
Fall: ‘Adam’s Fall was a catastrophe that changed the fate of the world. It was an
impenetrable wall that separated his original state from his later state, so that
in the later state one can no longer find traces of the original state (except in
obscure anamnesis, slumbering in the human soul)’. 69
Bulgakov posits a qualitative distinction between humans and animals:
‘this evolutionary connection of man with his animal ancestors does not
exhaust the main thing in him, his humanity, which consists in the image and
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likeness of God, which are not proper to the animal world’. Bulgakov, like
Men as we shall see, views this difference as an ‘ontological hiatus’. For
Bulgakov, this ontological difference in the human has consequences for
original sin. Since man, with spirit, was called to be ‘the cultivator and
protector of the cosmos’, his failure and subjection to the World Soul has
subjected the natural world to vanity.
The appearance of spirit in the human is inexplicable in terms of
evolution, so evolution therefore cannot be applied to an understanding of the
human spirit as in Teilhard’s noosphere. Men agrees with Bulgakov concerning
the necessity of ‘external movement’ in the development of the human spirit,
but does not altogether abandon the developmental ideas of Teilhard.
Bulgakov sees freedom in modal terms. It can exist to different extents
depending on the ontological status of the being that possesses it. The angels
are free and some used their freedom to turn against God. For Bulgakov, an
Angelic Fall is closely connected with the corruption of the World Soul: ‘[the
fallen angels] are transformed into demons and participate in the life of the
human world, through man himself, as well as through the animal world and
the natural world in general. The world soul becomes sick with demon
possession’. Evil is seen by Bulgakov as having creative power insofar as it is
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an expression of demonic self-assertion. Bulgakov finds particular significance
in the serpent in the Garden of Eden: ‘The beginning of evil in man is…

69 Bulgakov, The Bride of the Lamb, p171
70 Bulgakov, The Bride of the Lamb, p174
71 Bulgakov, The Bride of the Lamb, p159

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