Boris Jakim

God as Love

Theology

“This is an encyclopedic work of immense scholarship, unprecedented in the study of Russian religious thought. Not only does Johannes Oravecz give us valuable analyses of works on Divine love by the major figures of Russian philosophy (Solovyov, Florensky, Bulgakov), but he also ventures into the byways and introduces us to the ideas of lesser known writers such as Malevanskii, Tareev, and Svetlov. This book is obviously rooted in Oravecz's personal experience: it is a book about God's love written by someone who loves God.”

Jacob's Ladder

Theology

“Written by Bulgakov after a near-death encounter with an angelic being who led him back to life, Jacob's Ladder possesses a mystical intensity almost beyond words. Using doctrinal, scriptural, liturgical, iconographic, and personal experiential data, Bulgakov provides a theological interpretation of the doctrine of angels. Its lyrical beauty and its profound speculative reflections make this book very difficult to translate, but Thomas Allan Smith has more than met the challenge, offering English-speaking readers what is undoubtedly the greatest work of angelology in the modern Orthodox literature.”

The Burning Bush

Theology

“In this book, unique in the Russian Orthodox literature, the great theologian Sergius Bulgakov illuminates various aspects of the Church's veneration of the Mother of God. Like all of Bulgakov's devotional books, this is not a work of abstract theologizing, but a work of prayer, opening up a vision of the mystical reality that forms the foundation of our relations to the Ever-Virgin and her relation to us. Thomas Allan Smith's translation is superb, and in his first-rate introduction he does an excellent job of elucidating Bulgakov's sophiological approach.”

The Insulted and Injured

Fiction

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Unfading Light

Theology

“One of the greatest works of philosophy of the twentieth century, Unfading Light is full of a radiance that penetrates the reader's mind and heart. . . . We see Bulgakov's mind growing to encompass great sophiological truths and his heart expanding to absorb the Divine light as he prepares to begin work on his two unparalleled theological trilogies. With his superb translation, Thomas Allan Smith has given the twenty-first century a luminous gift.”