“Augustinianism and Predestination” by Sergius Bulgakov

This article is a translation of the excursus—Augustinianism and Predestination—appended to the third volume of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov’s major dogmatic trilogy, The Bride of the Lamb. It was not translated in Boris Jakim’s 2001 translation of the text, and an English version has not yet appeared. The excursus is of major significance for the history of the reception of Augustine in Orthodoxy, as well as for understanding the shape of Bulgakov’s theology in one of its final formulations near the end of the author’s life. As the foremost Orthodox defender of universal salvation in the twentieth century, Bulgakov appends to his volume on the Church and eschatology a treatise on Augustine’s doctrine of predestination, grace, and the question of partial or universal salvation. For Bulgakov, as for Augustine, protology and eschatology were one in their divine foundation, and as such Bulgakov’s reflections on the great architect of Western theology will reward scholars of Augustine, Bulgakov, and Orthodoxy more generally.