Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age: Tradition Faces the 21st Century

Despite over 200 million adherents, Eastern Orthodox Christianity attracts little scholarly attention. While more-covered religions emerge as powerful transnational forces, Eastern Orthodoxy appears doggedly local, linked to the ethnicity and land of the now marginalized Eastern Europe. But Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age brings together new and nuanced understandings of the Orthodox churches—inside and outside of Eastern Europe—as they negotiate an increasingly networked world. The picture that emerges is less of a people stubbornly refusing modernization, more of a people seeking to maintain a stable Orthodox identity in an unstable world. For anyone interested in the role of Eastern Orthodoxy in the 21st century, this volume provides the place to begin.

Victor Roudometof is assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Cyprus. Alexander Agadjanian is teaching at the Center for the Study of Religion, Russian State University of Humanities, Moscow. Jerry Pankhurst is professor of Sociology at Wittenberg University.