In -- the first component of his "minor theological trilogy" -- the great Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov explores the place of Mary the Mother of God in Orthodox theology and devotional practice, in the process critiquing certain aspects of Roman Catholic Mariology. Drawing heavily on the Orthodox Church's liturgical texts and iconography and on his own developing Sophiology, Bulgakov offers a rich explanation of the unique, mysterious role played by the Mother of God as the realization of the human capacity for divinization.