The ecclesiology of Father Sergei Bulgakov

The article examines the ecclesiology of Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov, a major figure in twentieth-century religious thought. Brandon Gallaher offers an analytical and systematic study of Bulgakov's conception of the Church, drawing on the entirety of this author's theological corpus. The central idea is that Bulgakov's ecclesiology is structured around his sophiology and pneumatology, endowing the Church with a simultaneously divine and human dimension that cannot be reduced to any narrow institutionalism. The contribution of this article lies in shedding light on the internal coherence of an ecclesiology that is often overlooked or only partially addressed in the secondary literature, while situating Bulgakov's thought within the broader context of contemporary Orthodox theological debates on the nature and limits of the Church.