The Evdokimov Corpus

A working guide to Paul Evdokimov’s books: the French originals with their dates, the English translations with their translators and publishers, the posthumous volumes, and a recommendation about where to begin. Bibliographical data on modern authors are easy to get wrong; where the sources disagree, this file reports the disagreement rather than resolving it.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (emigration)

The Major Works, in Order

Dostoïevski et le problème du mal (1942)

His doctoral thesis, defended at Aix in 1942 and published the same year; reissued by Éditions de Corlevour in 2014 (ISBN 9782915831825). No complete English translation. See The Student Years and the Dostoevsky Thesis. [Disputed: 1942 vs. a "docteur ès lettres 1938" datum in the French Wikipedia article; see the discussion in that file.]

Le Mariage, sacrement de l’amour (1944)

The first, shorter treatment of marriage, superseded by the 1962 book. Listed in the standard bibliography (Wikipedia, “Paul Evdokimov”).

La Femme et le salut du monde (1958)

Full title: La Femme et le salut du monde: Étude d’anthropologie chrétienne sur les charismes de la femme. Tournai/Paris: Casterman, 1958. His most famous and most contested book.

English: Woman and the Salvation of the World: A Christian Anthropology on the Charisms of Women, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994 (ISBN 0881410934); reissued (ISBN 0881418722).
Other: German Die Frau und das Heil der Welt (1989); Romanian Femeia și mântuirea lumii (1995); Russian Женщина и спасение мира (2015).
See 06 — Woman and the Salvation of the World and 08 — The Critique. [Disputed: 1958 vs. a 1955 dating given in some notices.]

L’Orthodoxie (1959)

Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1959. The single-volume synthesis, for which the St. Sergius Institute awarded him its doctorate in theology.

English: Orthodoxy, trans. Jeremy Hummerstone, foreword by Olivier Clément. New City Press, 2011 (ISBN 9781905039128 / 9781565483699).
Russian: Православие (2012).
See Professor at St. Sergius. [Disputed: the English publisher's note gives a first French edition of 1965 and states that the translation renders the revised edition of 1979; 1959 is the date given by the bibliographies and is used here.]

Gogol et Dostoïevski, ou la descente aux enfers (1961)

Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1961; reissued Corlevour, 2011 (ISBN 9782915831399). German: Der Abstieg in die Hölle: Gogol und Dostojewski (Salzburg: Müller, 1965). No English translation. See Dostoevsky, Atheism, and the Modern World.

Le Sacrement de l’amour (1962)

Full title: Le Sacrement de l’amour: Le mystère conjugal à la lumière de la tradition orthodoxe. Paris: Éditions de l’Épi, 1962; later French edition 1977 (ISBN 9782704500567).

English: The Sacrament of Love: The Nuptial Mystery in the Light of the Orthodox Tradition, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel and Victoria Steadman. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985 (ISBN 088141042X).
Russian: Таинство любви: тайна супружества в свете православного Предания (2011).
See 05 — The Sacrament of Love.

“Le monachisme intériorisé” (1963)

His essay on interiorized monasticism, published in Le millénaire du Mont Athos 963–1963: Études et mélanges, tome I (Chevetogne: Éditions de Chevetogne, 1963) — the commemorative volume for the millennium of Athonite monasticism. The material recurs in Les Âges de la vie spirituelle. See 04 — Interiorized Monasticism.

Les Âges de la vie spirituelle (1964)

Full title: Les Âges de la vie spirituelle: Des Pères du désert à nos jours. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1964. His principal work on the spiritual life.

English (first): The Struggle with God, Glen Rock, NJ: Paulist Press, 1966.
English (revised and fuller): Ages of the Spiritual Life, trans. and rev. Michael Plekon and Alexis Vinogradov. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998 (ISBN 0881411752).
Other: Romanian Vârstele vieții spirituale (1993); Russian Этапы духовной жизни (2003).
Note: the two English versions are not identical; the SVS Press edition is the one to use.

La Connaissance de Dieu selon la tradition orientale (1968)

Subtitle: l’enseignement patristique, liturgique et iconographique. No English translation known to this guide.

L’Esprit-Saint dans la tradition orthodoxe (1969)

Paris: Cerf, 1969. His book on the Holy Spirit; the systematic ground of his pneumatological ecumenism. See The Ecumenical Vocation and Vatican II.

Le Christ dans la pensée russe (1970)

Paris: Cerf, 1970 (ISBN 9782204026185); reissued Cerf, 1986. German: Christus im russischen Denken (Trier: Paulinus-Verlag, 1977).

L’Art de l’icône: Théologie de la beauté (1970/1972)

Paris: Desclée de Brouwer. His last book.

English: The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty, trans. Steven Bigham. Redondo Beach, CA: Oakwood Publications, 1990.
Other: Spanish El arte del icono: teología de la belleza (Madrid, 1991); Russian Искусство иконы: Богословие красоты (2005).
See 07 — Beauty and the Icon. [Disputed: 1970 (Encyclopædia Universalis; OFPRA, "published posthumously in 1970") vs. 1972 (English Wikipedia bibliography, "Desclée de Brouwer, 1972").]

Posthumous Volumes

L’Amour fou de Dieu (Paris: Seuil, 1973; ISBN 9782020032018) — essays; the theme of God’s “mad love” for the world and of the transfigured human face.
La Nouveauté de l’Esprit (Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1977; ISBN 9782855890203) — collected studies in spirituality, in the series of the Cistercian abbey of Bellefontaine.
Le Buisson ardent (Paris: Éditions P. Lethielleux, 1981; ISBN 9782249610073) — “The Burning Bush.”
La Prière de l’Église d’Orient: La liturgie de saint Jean Chrysostome and La Vie spirituelle dans la ville are also listed in the French bibliography (Wikipédia (French), “Paul Evdokimov”). [Disputed: publication data for these two titles, which the accessible catalogues do not consistently supply. They are listed here because they appear in the standard French bibliography, without dates this guide could verify.]

The English Anthology

In the World, of the Church: A Paul Evdokimov Reader, ed. and trans. Michael Plekon and Alexis Vinogradov. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001 (ISBN 0881412155; 273 pp.). The principal English gathering of his shorter writings — essays on the lay vocation, the sacraments, spirituality, and the Church in the modern world, with editorial introductions. For readers of English this is the best single entry point to the range of his thought.

Where to Begin

For the spiritual life: Ages of the Spiritual Life (SVS Press, 1998). The central book, and the one that carries “interiorized monasticism.”
For marriage: The Sacrament of Love (SVS Press, 1985). His finest and least contested achievement.
For an overview of Orthodoxy in his voice: Orthodoxy (New City Press, 2011).
For the theology of beauty: The Art of the Icon (Oakwood, 1990).
For the shorter writings: In the World, of the Church (SVS Press, 2001).
For the contested material, read with the criticism: Woman and the Salvation of the World (SVS Press, 1994), alongside Elisabeth Behr-Sigel’s The Ministry of Women in the Church (Oakwood, 1991) and Sarah Hinlicky Wilson’s Woman, Women, and the Priesthood (T&T Clark, 2013).

Secondary Literature

Michael Plekon, Living Icons: Persons of Faith in the Eastern Church (Notre Dame, 2002) — chapter on Evdokimov; the fullest English study.
Michael Plekon, “‘Interiorized Monasticism’: A Reconsideration of Paul Evdokimov on the Spiritual Life,” American Benedictine Review 48:3 (1997): 227–253.
Michael Plekon, “Paul Evdokimov,” in John Witte, Jr. and Gary S. Hauk, eds., Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 363–380.
Michael Plekon, “The Sacrament of Love: Paul Evdokimov on Marriage,” in Dedon and Trostyanskiy, eds., Love, Marriage and Family in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Theotokos Press / Sophia Institute, 2013), 25–39.
Andrew Louth, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present (SPCK/IVP Academic, 2015).
Olivier Clément, Orient–Occident: Deux passeurs, Vladimir Lossky et Paul Evdokimov (Labor et Fides, 1985).
Jean-François Roussel, Paul Evdokimov: Une foi en exil (Médiaspaul, 1999).
Contacts XXIII, nos. 73–74 (1971), Témoignages sur Paul Evdokimov — the memorial issue.
Radu Bordeianu, “Orthodox Observers at the Second Vatican Council and Intra-Orthodox Dynamics,” Theological Studies 79:1 (2018): 86–106.

A Bibliographical Caution

Evdokimov’s bibliography is unusually prone to error in secondary sources: dates for La Femme et le salut du monde (1955/1958), L’Orthodoxie (1959/1965) and L’Art de l’icône (1970/1972) all vary, several works have two distinct English versions under different titles, and the French reissues by Corlevour and Cerf are frequently cited as first editions. Anyone citing Evdokimov should check the edition in hand rather than trusting a secondary list — including this one.

References

Encyclopædia Universalis. “Paul Evdokimov (1901–1970).”
Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides (OFPRA). “Paul Evdokimov, theologian.”
Omnes. “Paul Evdokimov and the Art of the Icon.”
Plekon, Michael, and Alexis Vinogradov, eds. In the World, of the Church: A Paul Evdokimov Reader. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001. (WorldCat record: 273 pp.)
Wikipedia. “Paul Evdokimov.” (The principal bibliography used for French titles, publishers, ISBNs and translations.)
Wikipédia (French). “Paul Evdokimov.” (Additional titles: La Prière de l’Église d’Orient; La Vie spirituelle dans la ville; the Clément and Roussel studies; the Contacts memorial issue.)