Five Facts About the Orthodox Church in the United States

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America's Research Coordinator, Alexei Krindatch, has recently released a new 40-page report titled, Five Interesting Facts About Orthodox Church: Geography and Demography in the United States.  These facts are also somewhat disturbing, for the Orthodox Church in the United States is significantly smaller than many probably believed!  In fact, while the population of the United States  increased over the last twenty years, the population of practicing Orthodox Christians in the United States declined.


See Five Facts About the Orthodox Church in the United States

Icons and the Name of God by Sergius Bulgakov

In Orthodox theology both the icon and the name of God transmit divine energies, theophanies, or revelations that imprint God's image within us. In Icons and the Name of God renowned Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov explains the theology behind the Orthodox veneration of icons and the glorification of the name of God. In the process Bulgakov covers two major controversies -- the iconoclastic controversy (sixth to eighth centuries) and the "Name of God" controversy (early twentieth century) -- and explains his belief that an icon stops being merely a religious painting and becomes sacred when it is named. This translation of two essays "The Icon and Its Veneration" and "The Name of God" -- available in English for the first time -- makes Bulgakov's rich thinking on these key theological concepts available to a wider audience than ever before.

 

REVIEWS

Aristotle Papanikolaou

-- Fordham University

"The great tragedy of contemporary Orthodox theology is that Sergius Bulgakov remains one of the most understudied and underappreciated Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century. . . . In true Bulgakovian fashion, Icons and the Name of God does not simply describe what the icon is, but how the icon is possible -- the presencing of the divine in and through the material form. Like no other contemporary Orthodox theologian, Bulgakov engages the patristic tradition in a critically appreciative manner toward rendering an understanding of the icon that responds to contemporary questions. No serious Orthodox theology of the icon can ignore this magnificent text."

Richard Pevear

-- American University of Paris

"Boris Jakim has done English readers an inestimable service with his translations of the major works of twentieth-century Russian religious philosophy and theology -- works by S. L. Frank, Pavel Florensky, Vladimir Solovyov, and Sergius Bulgakov. In the present book he adds translations of two shorter works by Bulgakov on the veneration of icons and of the name of God in Orthodox tradition. Bulgakov's full and penetrating thought about these much-contested subjects is the more striking for the brevity of its expression."

Paul Valliere

-- Butler University

"Inspired by the Orthodox understanding of the Incarnation, Bulgakov's comprehensive vision of the Word made flesh is on full display here, thanks not only to the great theologian himself but also to his gifted and tireless translator, Boris Jakim."

See Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company