The Church and the Holy Spirit in 20th Century Russia

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2000 by Boris Bobrinskoy

To conclude in the words of Fr Sergius Bulgakov: "The beauty of the world is the effect of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Beauty, and Beauty is Joy, the joy of being."(9)

The gift of prophecy

Among the many gifts of the Spirit described in the New Testament Fr Sergius Bulgakov gives priority to that of prophecy. He distinguishes between the specific gift of prophecy bestowed on the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the general gift of prophecy accessible to all as a result of Pentecost. The gift of prophecy is thus an intrinsic dimension of the new life in Christ, where human beings deny themselves, take up their cross and realize their divine-humanity in Christ. Not only do they receive the Spirit but they create in and through the Spirit. On this subject Fr Sergius wrote:

   Pentecost is the universal consecration to prophecy for which each one
   receives a special gift (in the sacrament of chrismation: "the seal of the
   gift of the Holy Spirit") ... In this sense, there are no persons in the
   church who do not have their gift. They may be different, but the prophetic
   spirit remains immutably in them, for prophecy is not a special gift nor a
   confession, but the designation of all possible gifts.(10)

Alongside the priestly church (the institutional church with sacraments and hierarchy), Father Sergius thus sets a royal and prophetic church, so taking up the classical division of the three ministries of Christ. The first is organized and defined, the latter cannot be so because it is the result of the breath of the Spirit seeking to restore one church to humanity, over and beyond our institutions and ecclesiological exclusiveness. In Father Sergius's thinking, both the doctrinal charism of the hierarchy and the instinct for Orthodoxy of the whole people of God, as the Guardian of the faith, derive from this pentecostal and ecclesial gift of prophecy.

We find this ecclesiological dualism throughout all Father Sergius's work, in particular in the fairly clear-cut distinction he makes between the earthly, institutional church and the heavenly church. He is in the direct line of the sophiological heritage inspired by Vladimir Soloviev and Fr Paul Florensky. This sophiological theme did not long survive the death of Father Sergius. We cannot ignore some of its deepest insights, particularly concerning the sense of the unity and harmony of the whole cosmos held in the hand of God and reflecting God's glory. Furthermore, as the revelation of the mystery of the divine-human nature of Christ and the joint action of the incarnate Word and the Spirit of God, the church is also, for Fr Sergius, Sophia, on the one hand created in its historical, earthly reality, and on the other divine in its foundation.

Life in Christ

This gift is more than a particular gift amongst others; it specifies the church's very being, for this is the life of God himself communicated in its fullness. Thus for the Slavophiles the church is above all a life, it is not an institution, a doctrine, a system. Ivan Kireevsky had already discovered this certainty in the faith of his wife, who was a spiritual daughter of the staretsi of Optino. Everything in the church depends on love. The church's soul is the Holy Spirit, the grace of God living in a multitude of reasonable creatures who are subject to it.