Софиология

Tolstoi′s Christian love according to Solov′ ёv however is not anti-egoist, but ultimately egoist, as it is only interested in the salvation of the individual self, Tolstoi′s ascetic egoism – that reveals itself as anti-naturalist negation of every instinctive and bodily human need or pleasure – according to Solov’ëv is self-hatred and self-destruction that can have no place in true love. (SL, p. 34) Tolstoi′s salvation consisted in the loss of human individuality that is absorbed into the Divine Absolute. According to Solov’ëv, Tolstoi′s way to salvation was a continuous violence to human nature that contradicted God′s nature as love. For Solov’ëv the erotic love between a man and a woman is the fulfillment of their human nature. Only after the transcendence of the one-sidedness of human nature – or of the necessity of being engendered – humankind is ready to unite with God and be part of All-unity.

This salvation or union with God and All-Unity does not disturb the essential distinction between God and humankind, just as the union of a male and a female does not disturb the individuality and particularity of each. Love does not destroy the individuality or better the person-hood of the human individual, but it makes the human surpass him or herself. Solov’ëv′s teaching on salvation through love is a staged climb toward the perfection of human spiritual, moral and physical nature into Bogochelovechestvo (or the true communio of humankind and God in Divine Humanity) through the Grace of God,

Max Weber made the Tolstoian vision of Orthodox love as a mystical and brotherly love into the Ideal type of the Christian ethic of brotherliness,

This ethic resembles the world denying Puritan Christian ethic that has the same distracted brotherly love as an ascetic task and inner-worldly daily praxis at its center. This brotherly Christian ethic according to Weber finds its source in a denial of the world that is characteristic for salvation religions, that is a-cosmic and intrinsically a-social.[520] Tolstoi′s extremely world-denying individual ascetic praxis negated the value of everything inner-worldly. Tolstoi′s extremely negative evaluation and rejection of the inner-worldly realm differs from Puritanism with its more diverse valuation of this world, and from Orthodoxy that usually recognizes the sinfulness of the world, but did not impose any abstention from or hate for the world that God created.

2. b. Bulgakov′s sophiology as a continuation of Solov’ëv′s project – with some important adaptations

Sergei Bulgakov largely followed Solov’ëv in his critical treatment of Tolstoi′s concept of Christian love as duty and considered it as too individualistic, abstract and one-sided. Like Solov’ëv, Bulgakov never preached abstention from erotic love, nor celibacy between husband and wife. Bulgakov however never gave human love as eros the central position it had in Solov’ëv′s concept of salvation and All-Unity. For Bulgakov, not human eros or erotic love, but Divine love is central. Divine love – or Sophia

– is primordial and makes human love and life possible and meaningful. Although salvation can only be given by the Grace of God, humankind is not supposed to wait for it passively. Human work is essential for the salvation of humanity and the world.[521]

If the human individual is incomplete or imperfect, according to Bulgakov this is a result of the primordial sin. The erotic union of a male and a female does not restore human nature to its condition before the fall. Humanity does not become perfect or complete through eros or polovaia love. According to Bulgakov, only the daily work of every human individual in podvizhnichestvo[522] can make humanity complete as Divine-humanity in sobornost′.

Bulgakov replaced Solov’ëv′s concept of love as the intermediary between humanity and God with the concept of work. Bulgakov interpreted work in its broadest sense as consumption and production, and essentially as the transformation of nature into culture, or the humanization of nature.[523] Whereas for Solov′ev sobornost′ signified the ideal organization of the Orthodox Church community, for Bulgakov sobornost′ more and more became the characteristic of Orthodox social organization. It is the direct telos of Orthodox podvizhnichestvo which expresses itself as a daily methodic work – an ascetic praxis that is a calling (poslushanie) and a service to God for every Orthodox believer. Bulgakov′s concept of work as podvizhnichestvo is consciously close to the Puritan innerweltliche Askese that Weber recognized in the ′spirit of Capitalism′, which had a definite – although unintended – economical or inner-worldly result.[524]