The anthropological aspect in the doctrine of apocatastasis in the “Big Trilogy” by Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov

The article reveals how the anthropology of Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov concerns his doctrine of apocatastasis. Characterizing a person, he draws attention to his contradictory essence. The article traces that, to explain existence and man, Fr. Sergei uses the method of antinomies. With the help of the mythologem of Sophia the Divine and the Created, he represents the dual nature of man. Bulgakov's anthropological project is based on the antinomy of “the given and the required”. The antinomy is an ontological basis, thanks to which the co-creation of God and man is possible, capable of transforming the world around. Archpriest Sergei advocates antinomism in the following aspects: the opposition of the psychic-spiritual and the created, temporality and immortality, death and mortality, freedom and unfreedom. He argues that overcoming the dual nature of man is possible through spiritual renewal and bodily restoration, that is, in an act of apocatastasis. According to the author, Fr. Sergei attaches great importance to the idea of God's incarnation in revealing the concept of apocatastasis. The incarnation determines the ontological unity of temporal and eternal, relative and absolute. He describes two planes of human existence and reveals the main meaning of death. In the context of the doctrine of apocatastasis, Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov explains why one should not deny the possibility of spiritual improvement in the eschatological perspective, and asserts that man has an ontologically inherent ability to ascend to a perfect spiritual state.