The boundaries of the church and church authority in the writings of fr. Sergius Bulgakov

The theme of the Church of Christ is central in the theological work of Prot. Sergius Bulgakov (1871-1944) - it is no coincidence that the last book of his fundamental “great trilogy” was “The Bride of the Lamb”, a major study of the Church - but at the same time, the ecclesiological works of Fr. Sergius remain the least studied area of his theological work. Prot. Sergiy Bulgakov understood the Church in two ways: as an ontological and empirical phenomenon. On the one hand, the Church (with a capital letter) is God-manhood as “the union of the Divine and created principles, their inseparable and undifferentiated interpenetration” (Bulgakov, 2005, 283), God’s eternal plan for the world and the ultimate goal of creation; on the other hand, the human community that completes the historical path. By this definition, Fr. Sergius continued the ecclesiological discussion that unfolded in Russia in academic circles at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century, and made a unique contribution to the teaching of the Church, which has not lost its relevance to this day. Bulgakov defined the boundaries of the Church through the boundaries of her action: they show where God, and therefore the Church, has power and authority in this world, and where does not, and in what sense one can understand the omnipotence of God in the world and the power of the Church over the world.