Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements in Eastern Europe

by Aleksandra Djuric Milovanovic (Editor), Radmila Radic (Editor)

Overview

This book explores the changes underwent by the Orthodox Churches of Eastern and Southeastern Europe as they came into contact with modernity. The movements of religious renewal among Orthodox believers appeared almost simultaneously in different areas of Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth and during the first decades of the twentieth century. This volume examines what could be defined as renewal movement in Eastern Orthodox traditions. Some case studies include the God Worshippers in Serbia, religious fraternities in Bulgaria, the Zoe movement in Greece, the evangelical movement among Romanian Orthodox believers known as Oastea Domnului (The Lord’s Army), the Doukhobors in Russia, and the Maliovantsy in Ukraine. This volume provides a new understanding of processes of change in the spiritual landscape of Orthodox Christianity and various influences such as other non-Orthodox traditions, charismatic leaders, new religious practices and rituals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319633541
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	10/11/2017
Series:	Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	339
File size:	784 KB

About the Author

Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović  is a research fellow focusing on the anthropology of religion and church history at the Institute for Balkan Studies – Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia.  

 Radmila R. Radić, is a research professor and historian at the Institute for Recent History of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. 

Table of Contents

1. Introductory:  Understanding Renewal Movements in Orthodox Christianity 

2. Ritual, Ecclesia, and the Reform of Russian Orthodoxy: The Life and Thought of Ioann Verkhovskii, 1818–91    

3. The New Doctrines of the Dukhoborite Fasters and Tolstoianism         

4. The ‘Renovationists’ and the Soviet State

5. Maliovantsy: Orthodox Christianity and the Ukrainian ‘Evangelical’ Peasants of Late Imperial Russia    

6. The Nazarenes among the Serbs: Proselytism and/or Dissent?

7. The God Worshipper Movement in Serbian Society in the 20th Century: Emergence, Development, and Structures

8. The Influence of 19th- and 20th-century Religious Renewal Movements on the Language Policy and Religious Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church

9. The Prayer Chanting of the God Worshipper Movement         

10. The God Worshipper Movement and Pilgrimage: Religious Revival in the Past and Present   

11. The Romanian Lord’s Army: A Case Study in Eastern Orthodox Church Renewal         

12. The Oastea Domnului (Lord’s Army) Movement in the Serbian Banat

13. The Brotherhood of Theologians Zoe and Its Influence on 20th-century Greece         

14. The Case of the Christiyanka Journal: The Bulgarian Orthodox Charity Network and the Movement for Practical Christianity after World War I    

15. Epilogue: Looking West, but Walking East: the Dilemma of Orthodoxy in a Modernising World

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Capturing a diversity of renewal movements from across the Orthodox world, this volume offers a unique contribution to the study of Eastern Orthodoxy and its encounter with modernity. The movements discussed here are unstudied and little understood both within the region and more broadly. This volume is especially welcome as, by bringing together the work of esteemed scholars from across the region, it facilitates for the first time comparative conversations on the nature and processes of Orthodox renewal in Eastern Europe.” (James A. Kapaló, University College Cork, Ireland)

“I was impressed by several outstanding features of this volume: its thematic scope and diversity; its novelty; expertise and reliability of the scholars/editors writing individual chapters, as well as the thematic harmony and balance achieved despite a very heterogeneous set of topics. I do not remember that such a variety of renewal movements from South Eastern Europe has been tackled in a singlevolume. One of the major strengths of this work is its interdisciplinary scope and international appeal. This is inherent in its versatile contents and the participation of an international group of esteemed scholars in their respective fields of research. Although the number of books and studies covering the area of Eastern Orthodox Christianity has increased since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is still a huge deficit in the respective academic research concerning specialized topics such as this.” (Milan Vukomanović, University of Belgrade, Serbia)

Editorial Reviews

The book offers a broad spectrum of movements which are little-known in the West. The contributors try to clarify phenomena from the perspective of the anthropology of religion and they give few theological insights. … This volume will certainly become an impetus for future publications in this field.” (Sergiy Sannikov, European Journal of Theology, Vol. 28 (1), 2019)

“This volume is a must for those who have an interest in what ‘spiritual renewal’ looks like in an Eastern Orthodox context. It is my hope that it is only the first of many other similar studies that will be made available to the English-speaking world.” (Timothy Cremeens, Pneuma, Vol. 40 (4), 2018)

From the Publisher