Revisiting the concept of hell: contributions of S. Bulgakov and P. Florensky

ENThe renewal of studies in eschatology occurred at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries and originated from the Reformed Church. Sergius Bulgakov and Pavel Florensky, a priests of the Orthodox Church, made a significant contribution to the Protestant and Catholic authors. Their worldview was negatively influenced by the ideology of Marxism, which S. Bulgakov and P. Florensky perceived as a falsification of reality, a parody of human deification. The death is a moment of self-determination, in which all life is concentrated and time becomes eternity. In death, God and man speak, both utter their last word, which remains and never ends. In the face of death, man is given the opportunity to repent of one’s sins and avoid spiritual death and suffering in hell or to choose separation from God. God did not predestine any man to go to hell. In their teaching on eschatological realities, S. Bulgakov and P. Florensky remain faithful to the concept of teaching of the Bible and the Early Church Fathers. At the same time, they present an interpretation of hell in a very modern way: as the self-judgement of a man, self-isolation from the love of God-Trinity, the true drama of human freedom, as the ability to consciously choose between good and evil, engage with God or against one. If we did not know that we are reading texts written 100 years ago, it would seem that they were created in the present age, because they remain relevant even to a modern person.