A pivotal period in Russian history, the Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century has taken on new resonance in the country's post-Soviet search for new national narratives. The historical role of the Orthodox Church has emerged as a key theme in contemporary remembrances of this time-but what precisely was that role? The first comprehensive study of the Church during the Troubles, Orthodox Russia in Crisis reconstructs this tumultuous time, offering new interpretations of familiar episodes while delving deep into the archives to uncover a much fuller picture of the era. Analyzing these sources, Isaiah Gruber argues that the business activity of monasteries played a significant role in the origins and course of the Troubles and that frequent changes in power forced Church ideologues to innovate politically, for example inventing new justifications for power to be granted to the people and to royal women. These new ideas, Gruber contends, ultimately helped bring about a new age in Russian spiritual life and a crystallization of the national mentality.

This book provides a sociological understanding of transformations within Eastern Orthodoxy and the settlement of Orthodox diasporas in Western Europe. Building a fresh framework on religion and migration through the lenses of religious glocalization, it explores the Romanian Orthodox diaspora in Italy as a case study in the experience of Eastern Orthodoxy in a Western European country. The research brings to light the Romanian Orthodox diaspora's reshaping of the more customary social traditionalism largely spread within Eastern Orthodoxy. In its position as an immigrant group and religious minority, the Romanian Orthodox diaspora develops socio-cultural and religious encounters with the receiving environment and engages with certain contemporary challenges. This book refutes the vague image of Orthodox Christianity as a monolithic religious system composed of passive religious institutions, rather showing current Orthodox diasporas as flexible agents marked by dynamic features.

With a combination of essay-length and short entries written by a team of leading religious experts, the two-volume En cyclopedia of Eastern Orthodoxy offers the most comprehensive guide to the cultural and intellectual world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity available in English today. * An outstanding reference work providing the first English language multi-volume account of the key historical, liturgical, doctrinal features of Eastern Orthodoxy, including the Non-Chalcedonian churches * Explores of the major traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy in detail, including the Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopic, Slavic, Romanian, Syriac churches * Uniquely comprehensive, it is edited by one of the leading scholars in the field and provides authoritative but accessible articles by a range of top international academics and Orthodox figures * Spans the period from Late Antiquity to the present, encompassing subjects including history, theology, liturgy, monasticism, sacramentology, canon law, philosophy, folk culture, architecture, archaeology, martyrology, hagiography, all alongside a large and generously detailed prosopography * Structured alphabetically and topically cross-indexed, with entries ranging from 100 to 6,000 words

In modern Russia, the question is raised about the revival of the spirituality of the population, which increases interest in studying the history of the church. In the pre-revolutionary period, the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire had a significant impact on the formation of national culture and statehood. Actively cooperating with the state, the Orthodox Church has accumulated vast experience in the field of education, missionary work, and charity. This experience in today's Russia can be used to solve the most important tasks in the moral education of young people who will contribute to the future of Russia. Examining the Relationship Between the Russian Orthodox Church and Secular Authorities in the 19th and 20th Centuries focuses on the system of spiritual education, the social and psychological characteristics of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the tradition of Orthodox pilgrimage. It explores the key areas of charitable and educational activities of the Orthodox Church during the period of religious transformation in the 19th and 20th centuries. Covering topics such as missionary activity, secular authority, and church land tenure, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for historians, anthropologists, sociologists, researchers in politics and religion, librarians, students and faculty of higher education, and academicians.

Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity fills a significant gap in the sociology of religious practice: Studies focused on women's religiosity have overlooked Orthodox populations, while studies of Orthodox practice (operating within the dominant theological, historical, and sociological framework) have remained gender-blind. The essays in this collection shed new light on the women who make up a considerable majority of the Orthodox population by engaging women's lifeworlds, practices, and experiences in relation to their religion in multiple, varied localities, discussing both contemporary and pre-1989 developments. These contributions critically engage the pluralist and changing character of Orthodox institutional and social life by using feminist epistemologies and drawing on original ethnographic research to account for Orthodox women's previously ignored perspectives, knowledges, and experiences. Combining the depth of ethnographic analysis with geographical breadth and employing a variety of research methodologies, this book expands our understanding of Orthodox Christianity by examining Orthodox women of diverse backgrounds in different settings: parishes, monasteries, and the secular spaces of everyday life, and under shifting historical conditions and political regimes. In defiance of claims that Orthodox Christianity is immutable and fixed in time, these essays argue that continuity and transformation can be found harmoniously in social practices, demographic trends, and larger material contexts at the intersection between gender, Orthodoxy, and locality. Contributors: Kristin Aune, Milica Bakic-Hayden, Maria Bucur, Ketevan Gurchiani, James Kapalo, Helena Kupari, Ina Merdjanova, Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Eleni Sotiriou, Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir, Detelina Tocheva

This book examines the part played by monks of Mount Athos in the diffusion of Orthodox monasticism throughout Eastern Europe and beyond. It focuses on the lives of outstanding holy men in the history of Orthodoxy who have been drawn to the Mountain, have absorbed the spirit of its wisdom and its prayer, and have returned to the outside world, inspired to spread the results of their labours and learning. In a remarkable demonstration of what may be termed 'soft power' in action, these men have carried the image of Athos to all corners of the Balkan peninsula, to Ukraine, to the very far north of Russia, across Siberia and the Bering Strait into North America, and most recently (when traditional routes were closed to them by the curtain of communism) to the West. Their dynamic witness is the greatest gift of Athos to a world thirsting for spiritual guidance.