Bogomilism: The Afterlife of the “Bulgarian Heresy”

Abstract

This study in history of ideas looks at the hitherto unstudied subject matter of adaptations of the medieval gnostic movement known as Bogomilism to the needs of modern and postmodern discourses of Bulgarian identity. A wide range of texts of Bulgarian culture relevant for the revitalisation of Bogomilism is analysed, from the first works of writers of the national revival movement, to school textbooks, journalism, essays, fine literature, and esoteric books of the turn of the 20th century. The result is the establishment of connections between different strategies of mythologizing Bogomilism in modern Bulgarian culture and the projects of modernitas preferred by their (often mutually conflicted) authors.