diff --git a/pbr/builddoc.py b/pbr/builddoc.py
index f51b283c..4f056737 100644
--- a/pbr/builddoc.py
+++ b/pbr/builddoc.py
@@ -17,9 +17,7 @@
 from distutils import log
 import fnmatch
 import os
-import pkg_resources
 import sys
-import warnings
 
 try:
     import cStringIO
@@ -29,7 +27,6 @@
 try:
     from sphinx import apidoc
     from sphinx import application
-    from sphinx import config
     from sphinx import setup_command
 except Exception as e:
     # NOTE(dhellmann): During the installation of docutils, setuptools
@@ -134,16 +131,6 @@ def _sphinx_run(self):
             confoverrides['release'] = self.release
         if self.today:
             confoverrides['today'] = self.today
-        sphinx_config = config.Config(self.config_dir, 'conf.py', {}, [])
-        sphinx_ver = pkg_resources.parse_version(
-            pkg_resources.get_distribution("sphinx").version)
-        if sphinx_ver > pkg_resources.parse_version('1.2.3'):
-            sphinx_config.init_values(warnings.warn)
-        else:
-            sphinx_config.init_values()
-        if self.builder == 'man' and len(
-                getattr(sphinx_config, 'man_pages', '')) == 0:
-            return
         if self.sphinx_initialized:
             confoverrides['suppress_warnings'] = [
                 'app.add_directive', 'app.add_role',
@@ -153,6 +140,10 @@ def _sphinx_run(self):
             self.builder_target_dir, self.doctree_dir,
             self.builder, confoverrides, status_stream,
             freshenv=self.fresh_env, warningiserror=self.warning_is_error)
+        sphinx_config = app.config
+        if self.builder == 'man' and len(
+                getattr(sphinx_config, 'man_pages', '')) == 0:
+            return
         self.sphinx_initialized = True
 
         try:
diff --git a/pbr/tests/test_setup.py b/pbr/tests/test_setup.py
index 0754a8d1..0930e350 100644
--- a/pbr/tests/test_setup.py
+++ b/pbr/tests/test_setup.py
@@ -224,6 +224,10 @@ def _fake_run_shell_command(cmd, **kwargs):
             self.assertTrue(co_author in authors)
 
 
+class _SphinxConfig(object):
+    man_pages = ['foo']
+
+
 class BaseSphinxTest(base.BaseTestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
@@ -234,7 +238,7 @@ def setUp(self):
         self.useFixture(fixtures.MonkeyPatch(
             "sphinx.application.Sphinx.build", lambda *a, **kw: None))
         self.useFixture(fixtures.MonkeyPatch(
-            "sphinx.config.Config.man_pages", ['foo']))
+            "sphinx.application.Sphinx.config", _SphinxConfig))
         self.useFixture(fixtures.MonkeyPatch(
             "sphinx.config.Config.init_values", lambda *a: None))
         self.useFixture(fixtures.MonkeyPatch(