Bulgarian heresy

266 Pages·2017·3.23 MB·English

Gra¿yna Szwat-Gy³ybowa
Bogomilism:
The Afterlife
of the “Bulgarian Heresy”
5
MONOGRAPHS
Institute of Slavic Studies,
Polish Academy of Sciences

Bogomilism:
The Afterlife
of the “Bulgarian Heresy”

Gra¿yna Szwat-Gy³ybowa
Bogomilism:
The Afterlife
of the “Bulgarian Heresy”
Translated by
Piotr Szymczak
5
MONOGRAPHS
Institute of Slavic Studies,
Polish Academy of Sciences
WARSAW 2017
Prof. dr hab. Maria Dąbrowska-Partyka, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
E&d iPtroorfi.a dl rr ehvaibe.w K r zysztof Wrocławski, University of Warsaw
Haeresis bulgarica w bułgarskiej świadomości kulturowej
XIX i XX wieku
Originally published in 2005 as
, Warszawa: Slawistyczny Ośrodek Wydawniczy (IS PAN).
Praca naukowa finansowana w ramach programu Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego
pod nazwą „Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki” w latach 2014–2017.
This academic publication was financed within the “National Programme for the Development
of Humanities” of the Minister of Science and Higher Education in 2014–2017.
NATIONAL PROGRAMME
FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITIES
Quotations cited from Bulgarian sources are translated into English by Marina Ognyanova­
­Simeonova.
JIaSSku PbA OS zMimOeNkOGRAPHS SERIES
Editorial supervision
Barbara Grunwald-Hajdasz
Cover and title page design
Jan Szelągiewicz
Editing
Jerzy Michał Pieńkowski
Typesetting and page makeup
This is an Open Access book distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 PL License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/pl/), which permits
redistribution, commercial and non commercial, provided that the book is properly cited.
© Copyright by Grażyna Szwat­Gyłybowa
© Copyright for the English translation by Piotr Szymczak, 2017
ISBN: 978-83-64031-67-0
Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
ul. Bartoszewicza 1b/17
00­337 Warszawa
tel./fax [phone]
[email protected], www.ispan.waw.pl
To my Children, Husband, and Friends
with thanks

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION  ................................................ 9
Bogomilism – the Basic Narrative ............................. 16
Bogomil Cosmogony  .......................................... 24
1. BOGOMILISM AS A SUBJECT OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES
(1762–1944) .................................................. 35
Problems of Identity .......................................... 35
An Obstacle to Progress  ...................................... 48
Precursors of Progress  ....................................... 58
Zagorchin’s “Utopia of the Order”?  ............................ 78
2. OCCULTIST ATTEMPTS TO REVITALISE BOGOMILISM ........ 83
The Theosophic Version: the Magi  ............................ 85
A Rediscovered Book of the Magi: Glogov’s Forgery  ........... 97
The Teacher Version: Peter Deunov  ........................... 101
3. TBOheG OMMarILxi FsAt VSCarINiaAnTt IONS IN COMMUNIST BULGARIA: THE BUL­
GARIAN QUEST FOR A MODERN IDENTITY ................... 117
The Occultist Quasi-Marxist Variant
  ........................................... 117
Stefan Tsanev’s Hylics and Pneumatics
 ............................ 121
Богомилката
 .......................... 130
The Paradigms of a Heretic. by Blaga Dimitrova ... 137
The Sun’s Bride ............................................. 142
Aristocrat and Plebeian
The Spiritual Biography of Emilian Stanev  .................... 153
  ...................................... 154
Th“eP Aurnittiacnhrsi”s ti n(t hthee M Tyrsatpic o –f Htheed Aongnisomst ic. –. .t.h.e. .G.n.o..s.ti.c.)......... 154
A Skeptic in the World of Ideas ............................ 163
  ....... 168
HThees yIcdheoialo g .u.e............................................... 169
In a World of Chaos ....................................... 176
 ............................................. 178
4. TRANSPOSITIONS OF BOGOMILISM IN NEW AGE AND POST­
MODERNIST LITERATURE .................................... 185
The Secret Book
A New Turn Towards the Utopia of Progress  .................. 187
APo Nste-Mwo Adgeern V Derosuibotn A obfo tuht eth Pe eArexgiorliongaictiaol nCse notfr e?
in Europe  .................................................. 195
In the Gnostic Hell
 ............... 202
 ............................................. 217
CONCLUSIONS  .................................................. 231
REFERENCES ................................................... 243