Professor of the Kiev Theological Academy A. I. Bulgakov as a Researcher of the Religious Life of Victorian England br

For a long time, the name of the Russian theologian and historian, Professor of the Kiev Theological Academy Afanasy Ivanovich Bulgakov (1859-1907), was mentioned mainly in connection with the analysis of the work of his son, the famous writer M.A. Bulgakov. The works, devoted to the analysis of the scientific production of Bulgakov the Elder, begun to appear only recently (O.T. Ermishin, Yu.A. Labyntsev, L.L.Shchavinskaya). This article examines Bulgakov's works dedicated to the study of the Church of England during Victorian period. Bulgakov's interest in this issue was initially caused by the intensification of the Orthodox-Anglican dialogue, which gave rise to hopes for the reunification of the Churches. Gradually Bulgakov moved on to considering the phenomena of English religious life as significant in themselves. Especially noteworthy is his work 'New religious transformations in England in the present century >> (1897). Here Bulgakov presented not only a meaningful sketch of the development of the most significant phenomenon in the 19th century Anglicanism -the Oxford Movement (Tractarianism), but also anticipated some of the judgments of modern historiography. Bulgakov's writings were an important channel of informing the educated Russian public about the events of religious life in England. They testify to the desire of some representatives of the Russian church-historical science to move away from rigid confessionalism and take the path of a more objective study of the events of the contemporary religious life of the West.