From diverse international and multi-disciplinary perspectives, the contributors to this volume analyze the experiences, challenges and responses of Orthodox churches to the foundational transformations associated with the dissolution of the USSR. Those transformations heightened the urgency of questions about Orthodox identity and relations with the world - states, societies, and the religious and cultural other.
The volume focuses on six distinct concepts: Orthodox identity, perceptions of the 'other, ' critiques of the West, European values, interreligious progress, and new and uncharted challenges that have arisen with the expansion of Russian Orthodox activity.

This volume concentrates on the "conceptual boundary" through Europe which is determined by Western and Eastern Christianity. The single articles research how this boundary has developed in different periods and epochs and in different places. They also show that the boundary has never been a stable and defined division, but that it was also subject to change and development and a place of encounter and exchange between religions and cultures.

From diverse international and multi-disciplinary perspectives, the contributors to this volume analyze the experiences, challenges and responses of Orthodox Churches to the foundational transformations associated with the dissolution of the USSR.

This volume concentrates on the 'conceptual boundary' through Europe which is determined by Western and Eastern Christianity. The chapters show that the boundary has never been a stable and defined division, but that it was also subject to change and development and a place of encounter and exchange between religions and cultures.

Formed from This Soil offers a complete history of religion in America that centers on the diversity of sacred traditions and practices that have existed in the country from its earliest days. * Organized chronologically starting with the earliest Europeans searching for new routes to Asia, through to the global context of post-9/11 America of the 21st century * Includes discussion of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, political affiliations, and other elements of individual and collective identity * Incorporates recent scholarship for a nuanced history that goes beyond simple explanations of America as a Protestant society * Discusses diverse beliefs and practices that originated in the Americas as well as those that came from Europe, Asia, and Africa * Pedagogical features include numerous visual images; sidebars with specialized topics and interpretive themes; discussion questions for each chapter; a glossary of common terms; and lists of relevant resources to broaden student learning