Sergius BULGAKOW, The Eucharistic Sacrifice, trans. Mark Roosein, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021. Pp. 116. ISBN: 978-0-268-20141-8. Reviewed by Walter N. SISTO, D’Youville University, Buffalo, NY 14201.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice is an important addition to the growing library of English translations of Rev. Sergius Bulgakov’s theological works. Mark Roosien is commended for his high-quality translation that is on par with the main translators of Bulgakov’s theological works from Russian into English, Boris Jakim and Dr. Thomas Allan Smith.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the final book-length article in Bulgakov’s trilogy on the Eucharist: “Eucharist Dogma” (1930), “The Holy Grail” (1932), and “The Eucharist Sacrifice” (1939-40). In this final eucharistic work, Bulgakov offers an original, distinctive theological vision of the eucharist as an “eschatological manifestation of the primordial sacrifice,” the kenotic love of God in the Trinity. (ix)
The eucharist is not another sacrifice but the perfect actualization of God’s sacrificial love for the world. For Bulgakov, the eucharistic sacrifice is intimately linked to the Incarnation because the eucharist is a “single sacrifice that embraces the entire Incarnation.” (53) This is not to take away the importance of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross, for Bulgakov these sacrifices are intimately linked because the eucharistic sacrifice is the means through which the “work of salvation is accomplished” for humankind and creation. (74) In receiving the eucharist we begin the process of deification where “God [draws] ever nearer to and uniting with [us].” (74).

Bulgakov, who follows traditional orthodox theology, rejects the Catholic tradition of transubstantiation as unnecessary and prefers the term transmutation. Jesus Christ is truly present in the eucharistic bread and wine, but the eucharist is Christ’s glorified body. It is the penultimate encounter we may have with the Risen Lord Jesus before the Second Coming of Christ. What distinguishes Christ’s presence in the eucharist and Christ’s presence in the Second Coming is that while Jesus is only present substantially in the eucharist, not visibly, in the Second Coming of Christ, Jesus is present both visibly and substantially. (91)

The sacrifice of the eucharist is not simply the foretaste of the Second Coming of Christ but it is the beginning of the transfiguration of the world where “God may be all in all.” (1 Cor 15:28) In this work, Bulgakov also attempts to unpack the pan-cosmic implications of eucharistic theology, and he will argue that “all life is a single eucharist.” (74) The eucharist is the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth, when creation will be transformed at the parousia. (See Rev 21:1)

Nevertheless, chapter four is the most controversial chapter in the book. Bulgakov believes that the eucharistic theology provides important insights to help clarify the Chalcedonian dogma. He argues that based on the relationship of divinity to humanity that allows human nature to receive the hypostasis of the Logos incarnate, there is an intimate relationship between human nature and divine nature. This relationship between divine and creaturely nature extends to the soul and body of Christ in his human nature. The implication is that we receive Jesus’ deified human body that is united without confusion with Jesus’ divine body associated with his divine nature.  Bulgakov attempts to purge analogous notions of the human body when speaking about God’s body.  He argues that God’s body is “the self-revelation of God, Sophia, the Ens realissim.” It is the Glory of God, “yet absolutely spiritual and free from all fleshliness” (25-26) Unfortunately, Bulgakov does not flesh out the implications of this controversial claim; however, his conclusion warrants further investigation.

My brief overview of Bulgakov’s eucharist theology in this text offers only a glimpse of his original and fascinating eschatologically-oriented interpretation of the role and importance of the eucharist in the life of the Orthodox Church. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in eucharist theology from an Eastern Christian perspective as well as those interested in Bulgakov’s theology. This text is well-suited for a graduate-level class on eucharist theology. Bulgakov’s book offers a novel and straightforward approach to many eucharistic topics including the relationship of the eucharist to the sacrifice at Golgotha, why the eucharistic sacrifice is repeated in the liturgy, what is the nature and importance of this sacrifice, why is the eucharist relevant to the life of the church?

Moreover, for students of Bulgakov, this text is a must-read because it highlights the centrality of the eucharist in Bulgakov’s sophiology, something that has not been stressed in secondary scholarship, and provides readers with his most mature writing on this topic in translation.  

However, I strongly suggest that readers, unfamiliar with Bulgakov, read at least the chapters on Sophia in Bulgakov’s Sophia: The Wisdom of God: An Outline of Sophiology before reading this text. Although Bulgakov does provide some introduction to sophiology, readers may be lost without an appreciation of the relationship of the creaturely and divine Sophia to God and humanity.