Reviews for The Bride of the Lamb

The average rating for The Bride of the Lamb based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-04 00:00:00 Matthew Fatheree And here Bulgakov finishes his magisterial trilogy. Building upon earlier Sophialogical foundations, he reworks Anthropology and Ecclesiology towards an Eschatological vision. In this volume he further clarifies unclear points in *Lamb of God* and moves away from some Platonic and Gnostic suggestions he had earlier made. Bulgakov's project revolves around the distinction between Divine Sophia and Creaturely Sophia. Divine Sophia is Divinity as such, Glory. It is the Divine World. However, this isn't Gnosticism, for Bulgakov does not see Divine Sophia as a hypostasis. Divine Sophia has a creaturely Sophianic mode of existence in which the world exists. It is here that Bulgakov's project shines in all its brilliance but also threatens to come undone. He admits that the existence of the world-soul marks a "loss of clarity" and one wonders if he is reverting back to Aristotle's chain of being. But it is a lively chain, for he assures us: "There is no place for dead matter in the world." We are speaking of the world soul, not the world spirit. The difference between soul and spirit is that the soul is not hypostatic, whereas the Spirit is. The soul corresponds to the spirit's nature. It is the spirit's hypostatizedness. This is not Neo-Platonism, for he does not see the World Soul as a hypostasis. The World-Soul is a connected, multi-organic unity. It is the world's inner entelechy which unifies. Therefore, there is an "inner life principle" in the world. If this were not so, then why would we enjoin creation to praise God if creation is merely dead matter? It is the actualization of creaturely being (197). The world-soul actualizes creation's instincts for power. In its proper being it is divided into heaven and earth Creaturely sophia experiences aeviternitas. Divine Sophia aeternitas. Bulgakov has a beautiful section on Angels. Angels are how God usually relates nature (199). They are the bearers of the sophicanic prototypes of creation and the earth's reality. Creation arises through the elemental forces of the world soul but its formation presupposes angelic activity and participation (Rev. 7:1, 14:18; 16:5; and fight battles). Angels are the sophicanic heaven of the world, the creaturely bridge between Divine Sophia and Creaturely sophia, metaxu. Angels contain the assurance that creation is a ladder of life. Main Point The connection of God and the world is grounded in Sophianicity. "The divine Sophia is one, though she has two forms of being" (223). Bulgakov argues that the Western insistence on speaking of God as First Cause and creation as Second Cause has the effect of subsuming the latter under the former. Rather, God is not the cause of the world but the Creator. In the creation of the world God repeats or doubles his own Being. This is the Divine Sophia positing the Creaturely Sophia's mode of existence (222). It is the self-repetition of the Divine Sophia. Eschatology and the Sophianic Descent Glory in the Trinity corresponds to the revelation of the third hypostasis in the dyad of the Father's self-revelation. The Holy Spirit as glory rests upon the Son. Kenosis: removal of glory from the world, not from the Trinity. However, his earthly ministry includes a movement towards Glory (Tabor, the Cross). The dyad of Son-Spirit underwent a sort of kenosis as well. The Spirit reduced the degree of glory in his repose on Christ. The two kenoses are parallel, but they occasoinally coincide and diverge. In the Ascension the kenosis of the Son is overcome. The descent of the Spirit is a kenotic act as such, "for its action in the world remains limited by the measure of creaturely reception" (398). The third hypostasis does not have a personal revelation as such. It looks like it is submerged into "Glory," but this is not the case. Glory is not a property. It is divinity as such. Divinity is the revelation of the father in the bihypostatic Dyad of the Son and the Holy Spirit (407). In relation to the Son, Divinity is Wisdom. In relation to the Holy Spirit, Divinity is Glory. Therefore, if Christ is the hypostatic Wisdom of God, then the Holy Spirit is hypostatic glory, albeit hidden since the Holy Spirit doesn't have a hypostatic manifestation. Pentecost is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in Tongues of Fire, which isn't hypostatic. The Transfiguration of the World The world will be illumined with the lightning of the Parousia. The heavenly fire--the sophianic descent of the Holy Spirit--will set the world on fire and melt it. "That is the first action of the Holy Spirit in the world in its parousia" (421). How was the first Pentecost possible since the world cannot withstand such glory without being burned up? First it was possible because of the Incarnation. Relation between matter and spirit: the world receives its materiality from the Holy Spirit, so spirit is the basis of matter. Therefore, it is open to spirit. Conclusion: The book is sheer magnificence. That is not to say Bulgakov's project is without problems. There are a number of troubling angles, not least the which is an almost absence of exegesis. Further, Bulgakov admits that many key points are absent in Scripture (pertaining to Mariology). Still, this shouldn't take away from the book's, dare I say it, creaturely glory.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-30 00:00:00 Michael Huxley Way too complicated, and not enough exegesis of Scripture (or tradition). His chapter on Angels is very interesting, but I'm afraid it presents to much philosophical speculation. The "sophiological" relationship between creature/creator does not have to be THIS complicated