Relics and Miracles

Boris Jakim here presents two major theological essays by Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov in English translation for the first time. On Holy Relics, a 1918 response to Bolshevik desecration of the relics of Russian saints, develops a comprehensive theology of holy relics, connecting them with the Incarnation and showing their place in sacramental theology. The second essay, On the Gospel Miracles, written in 1932, presents a Christological doctrine of miracles, focusing on how human activity relates to the works of Christ. Both essays are suffused with Bulgakov's faith in Christian resurrection -- and with his signature religious materialism, in which the corporeal is illuminated by the spiritual and the earthly is transfigured into the heavenly.