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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Orthodox Churches
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.
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