Theology of Creation in Bulgarian Theological Thought of the 20th Century

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleБогословие на творението в българската богословска мисъл на XX век
3. Language term Bulgarian
4. lemma author Nachev, Ivaylo
5. lemma category Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Biblical interpretation - Complementarity
6. Publication date 29-1-2019
7. lemma work Риболов, Светослав [Author]. Богословие на творението в българската богословска мисъл на XX век
8. lemma manifestations Богословска Мисъл
9. Keywords Religious education - Марковски, Иван - Маринов, Борис - Creationism - Evolution
10. Lemma body

    1. The article examines the relations in the Bulgarian context between pro-evolutionist and Orthodox Christian views on the origin of life since the early the 20^th century when in the country flourished an academic theology based on the western models. Ribolov focusses on the theology of creation in Bulgarian Orthodox circles which evolved in the framework discussions about the character and content of religious education at the Bulgarian state schools. The first author who developed Bulgarian theology of creation was prof. Ivan Markovski who published a monograph (his first book) in the year of the establishment of the Theological Faculty in Sofia involving in the debates between creationists and evolutionists but aiming to achieve consent between the Bible and the latest discoveries in science. Later, in the early 1940s, Dimitar Marinov issued a two-volume book that supported the view that there were no major contradictions between the Bible and the sciences. Both authors aimed to reach the wide secularized audience and their texts were detached from the Orthodox theological tradition, according to Ribolov.  Before the Second World War, the theological view engaged in apologetic struggle with the secular ideas that were shared by a considerable part of Bulgarian society, according to the author. In the second half of the 20^th century gradually developed much more denominational orientated theological features based on revised Eastern Orthodox traditional cultural and spiritual heritage. On that basis were created strong theoretical arguments in favor of a realistic creationism in the specific context of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, according to Ribolov.