The Friend of the Bridegroom : On the Orthodox Veneration of the Forerunner

Eerdmans Pub Co, February 2003. Paper Back. New. ''God the Word appeared in the flesh to the human race, standing in the Jordan to be blessed. And the Forerunner said to Him: how can I extend my hand and touch the head of the one who holds all things? Even though you are the child of Mary, I know who you are, supra-eternal God. You walk on the earth glorified by the seraphim, and the servant is not authorized to baptize the Master. Unfathomable Lord, glory to thee!'' (from the office for Theophany). Apart from the rich inheritance of Orthodox liturgical hymnology, very little has been written of him who Christ Himself honors as ''greatest of those born of woman,'' him into whose mouth the Church places this liturgical testimony concerning Christ. Bulgakov's hermeneutically and theologically rich meditation (and surely the most extensive in the history of Christianity) could be considered a response to Christ's words concerning John the Baptist. Part of a trilogy that includes <i>The Burning Bush</i> (on the Virgin Mary) and <i>Jacob's Ladder</i> (on the angelic hosts), <i>The Friend of the Bridegroom</i> consistently begins with Scripture, proceeds to liturgical and patristic meditation upon it, and culminates with Bulgakov's theological synthesis: a profound drawing, consistent with iconographic tradition, of a parallelism between the Forerunner and the Mother of God in humility, fulness of obedience, and fruition of Old Covenant expectation. 190 pp.