Introduction: the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Patristic literature -- Early Christianity -- Tertullian's subordinationism and stoic philosophy -- Cosmological subordinationism in Arianism -- Ontological subordinationism in Origen's doctrine of the Holy Trinity -- Homoousianism in the trinitarian doctrine of St. Athanasius of Alexandria -- The Cappadocians' doctrine of the Holy Trinity and of the Holy Spirit -- The Western doctrine of Homoousian Trinitarian theology (St. Augustine) -- The Trinitarian and Pneumatological doctrine of St. John of Damascus -- 1. The place of the third Hypostasis in the Holy Trinity -- Trinitarity and the third Hypostasis -- The Taxis of order of the Hypostases in the Holy Trinity -- 2. The Procession of the Holy Spirit -- The first doctrines of the Procession of the Holy Spirit: dia and et (que) -- The Second Epoch in the doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Spirit. The Greco-Latin Polemic: Photian (Anti-Latin) Theology against the Latin Filioque.

3. On the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit -- In the divine Sophia -- In the creaturely Sophia -- 5. The Revelation of the Holy Spirit -- The Kenosis of the Holy Spirit in creation -- Divine inspiration in the Old Testament -- Divine inspiration in Christ -- The Pentecost -- The gifts of the Pentecost -- Epilogue: The Father.

Encyclopedic in scope, The Comforter explores all aspects of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as they are viewed in the Orthodox tradition and throughout church history. The book has sections on the development of the doctrine of the Spirit in early Christianity and on the development of the doctrine of procession in the patristic and later Byzantine periods. It also touches on the place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity and explores Old and New Testament notions of the Spirit of God. A concluding chapter deals with the mystical revelation of the Holy Spirit. Made available in English through the work of Boris Jakim, today's premier translator of Russian theology and philosophy into English, Bulgakov's Comforter in this edition is a major publishing event.