The problem of historical-critical methodology in the dogmatic theology of archpriest Sergius Bulgakov

The article deals with the problem of using the historical-critical method in dogmatic research in general and in particular in the main dogmatic work of Father Sergius Bulgakov, in “The Lamb of God”. The main initial principle of historical criticism is shown - the understanding of history as a rationally explicable connectedness of events, which obviously excludes everything miraculous and irrational. On the example of the historical-theological analysis of the Christology of St. Cyril of Alexandria at Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov, the author comes to the conclusion that the methodology of Fr. Sergius in some moments is really close to the rationalistic approach of historical criticism, which allows us to establish some similarities between the understanding of the history of dogmatic thought by Fr. Sergius Bulgakov and the principles of analogy and homogeneity identified by the Western theologian E. Troelch. On the other hand, there is an incomplete gap between Fr. Sergius with the ecclesiastical understanding of divine inspiration, which in general allows us to conclude that his methodological position is ambivalent as an attempt to combine the methods of theological and historical-critical, in essence (at the level of prerequisites) anti-church method.