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Divine Wisdom on Trial: The Sophia Affair and Theological Freedom

by Paul Ladouceur

The classic case of intellectual freedom in modern Orthodox theology is the mid-1930s controversy provoked by Father Sergii Bulgakov’s theology of Sophia or Divine Wisdom (sophiology). Bulgakov’s sophiology was put “on trial” by three instances of the Russian Orthodox Church; two denounced it, and the third determined that Bulgakov should not teach the doctrine at the Saint Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris.

Paul Ladouceur

(1944-2025) Taught at the Orthodox School of Theology at Trinity College, University of Toronto, and the Montreal Institute of Orthodox Theology (affiliated with Université Laval, Quebec).

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