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Document Details :

Title: Near-Death Experience and Russian Theology
Subtitle: Sergius Bulgakov's Near-Death Experience
Author(s): SISTO, Walter N.
Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies
Volume: 71    Issue: 1-2   Date: 2019   
Pages: 107-125
DOI: 10.2143/JECS.71.1.3285910

Abstract :
Any student of Sergius Bulgakov is aware that religious experiences play an important role in his theology. This essay examines his religious experiences in 1926 and 1939. Using recent research on near-death experiences, I argue that his 1926 experience comports to a transcendental near-death experience. His 1939 experience is at best an unclassified NDE. Moreover, like most near-death experiencers, Bulgakov’s near-death experience has aftereffects. Bulgakov’s 1926 experience helps him to refine his angelology. Even though his 1939 experience may not have been an near-death experience, it is an important event that aids his analysis of his Sophiology of death.