Brotherhood of Saint Sophia

The Brotherhood of Saint Sophia existed from 1919 to 1944 (dates vary according to source) and was headed by the Russian Orthodox Archpriest Fr. Sergei Bulgakov. N.D. Talberg named the following persons as members of the Brotherhood: Sergei Bulgakov, A.V. Kartashev, S.S. Bezobrazov, N.A. Berdyaev, V.V. Vysheslavtsev, S.L. Frank, V.V. Zenkovsky, Prince G.N. Trubetskoy, and P.V. Struve.

A.V. Kartashev composed the “Provisional Charter for the Brotherhood of St. Sophia — Holy Wisdom” which was approved in 1918 by Patriarch Tikhon. The Brotherhood’s aim was to help unite Orthodox Christians, particularly through fostering fraternal relationships between Russian Orthodox thinkers, via preaching, teaching and engaging in cultural initiatives. It was a hierarchical religious society quite unique in the Orthodox Christian world in that it closely resembled Catholic religious orders. It was three-tiered, consisting of brothers-novitiates, brothers-disciples, and brothers-elders, bonded together by a common religious vow. The Brotherhood’s leadership Council was composed of twelve brothers-elders. Bulgakov was elected as Council Chairperson and Zenkovsky elected as Council Secretary.

The Russian-French theologian Fr. Sergius Bulgakov was an extremely influential figure in the Eastern Orthodox resurgence among Russian intellectuals at the start of the 20th Century and was largely responsible not just for the Brotherhood’s formation, but also its continuation. He was trained as a political economist, and was a Marxist at first, then an Idealist, and finally an Orthodox believer. He was ordained a priest in 1918. Eventually forced out of Russia, he then took up residence in France and taught at the St. Sergius Institute in Paris. His theological speculations on Divine Wisdom became known as Sophiology and provoked heated discussion. Never prevailing in Orthodox circles, even in France where Bulgakov’s influence was greatest, Sophiology was eventually condemned as heretical by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1935. For Bulgakov the Theotokos St. Mary was the world soul and the “Pneumatophoric hypostasis”, a Bulgakov neologism. Imiaslavie was another controversial theological view within the Orthodox world which Bulgakov and other members of his Brotherhood defended and promoted. It is ironic that the Brotherhood’s efforts to create unity within Orthodoxy through devotion to Holy Wisdom and the Holy Name actually resulted in divisiveness and heresy accusations. Bulgakov’s ideas were eventually well received by some notable Catholics however who integrated them into their own thought, such as Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar and Valentin Tomberg, among others.

On June 11, 2018 a fellowship inspired by the Brotherhood of Saint Sophia formed calling itself The Brood of Holy Wisdom. According to its social media site it is a transodox form of new monasticism open to all genders rather than an Eastern Orthodox Christian Brotherhood. It’s focus, like the original Brotherhood of Saint Sophia, is upon deepening appreciation for and fostering kinship through the love of Holy Wisdom, working together as a Sophiologically centered spiritual community.

Bibliography

• Katerina Clark and Michael Holquis Mikhail Bakhtin, Belknap Press (1985)
• Erwin Fahlbusch Jan Milic Lochman, John Mbiti, Jaroslav Pelikan (Editors) The Encyclopedia Of Christianity Volume 5, Eerdmans (2008)
• Paul L. Gavrilyuk Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology), Oxford Univ. Press (2015)
• M. A. Kolerov (1995) “The Brotherhood of St. Sophia”, Russian Studies in Philosophy, 34:3, 26-61
• Ludmilla Perepiolkina Ecumenism: A Path to Perdition, Ludmilla Perepiolkina (1999)
• Katy Leamy The Holy Trinity: Hans Urs Von Balthasar and His Sources, Pickwick (2015)
• Marc Raeff Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919-1939 Oxford Univ. Press (1990)
• Svein Rise (Author), Staale Johannes Kristiansen (Editor) Key Theological Thinkers: From Modern to Postmodern, Routledge (2013)
• Walter Nunzio Sisto The Mother of God in the Theology of Sergius Bulgakov: The Soul of the World, Routledge (2017)
• Anonymous [but known to be Valentin Tomberg], Robert Powell (Translator), Hans Urs von Balthasar (Afterword) Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, TarcherPerigee (2002)

[ N.D. Talberg, Dvuglavyi Orel (The Double-headed Eagle) No. 4, pp. 7-8; "Vozbuditeli Raskola", (The Instigators of Schism), pp. 12-13, publ. by Doloi zlo (Away with Evil), Paris, 1927. (Quoted from: Bp. Gregory Grabbe, "The Church and its Teaching in Life", Jordanville, 1992, v. 3, p. 947.)

[M. A. Kolerov (1995) The Brotherhood of St. Sophia, Russian Studies in Philosophy, 34:3, 26-61]

[decree of Moscow Patriarchate dated 24 August, 1935, No.93]

[Walter Nunzio Sisto The Mother of God in the Theology of Sergius Bulgakov: The Soul of the World, Routledge (2017)]