Western (and especially American) scholars have long neglected the study of Eastern Christianity, one of the three great Christian traditions alongside Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Although the situation is beginning to change, it still receives less attention in the new focus on “world” Christianity by comparison with Western forms (Protestantism and Catholicism) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Yet the demographic realities suggest something different: since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, there has been a steady resurgence of Orthodoxy and a continual rise in the number of Russians who self-identify as Orthodox. According to the World Religion Database, Russia ranks third in the world of countries with the largest number of Christians, barely behind Mexico. Four of the ten European countries with the largest number of Christians are predominantly Orthodox (Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Greece), and thirty-five percent of Europe's Christians are Orthodox—double the number of Protestants. Yet scholarly resources are few, and teachers often do not know where to turn or what to start with in order to include more about Orthodoxy in their classes or recommend to their students (graduate or undergraduate). Therefore, a volume such as the one under consideration is particularly timely and welcome.
One distinctive feature of this collection of essays is that it considers both the Byzantine Orthodox traditions (those in communion with Constantinople) and the non-Chalcedonian or Oriental Orthodox equally, side-by-side. It brings together leading scholars in the field writing on their specialties. This hefty volume is divided into three roughly equal parts. The first considers various national Orthodox traditions: Greek, Russian, Armenian, Georgian, Syriac, the Assyrian Church of the East, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopian, Serbian, and Romanian. There are also three chapters on Orthodoxy outside traditional Orthodox lands (Paris, North America, and Australia), though Antoine Arjakovsky's article on Paris is more programmatic than a historical survey of the Paris school. The only glaring omission is Bulgaria. Part 2 is biographical in approach, with twenty-two sketches of lives of key figures ranging from Mary, Jesus' mother, to great theologians, churchmen, and spiritual figures; some are collective biographies (contemporary Athonite fathers, the elders of Optina Pustyn). Part 3 covers a range of major themes: ecclesiology and ecumenism, canon law, doctrine of the Trinity, ethics, women, hagiography, culture, literature, and music, mysticism, philosophy, and psychology. Very few essays have a focus that is too narrow or specialized; rather this is primarily a reference work for those seeking serious entry into the Orthodox Christian “world.”
Inevitably with a volume such as this, there are inconsistencies across the range of articles. Some of the articles on the national traditions, such as Andrew Louth's essay on the Greek tradition, focus exclusively on theological developments; others, such as Vera Shevzov's on the Russian tradition, are historical in a much broader sense. While both are brilliant scholars and fine essays, what they do is very different (and the reader is left, for example, without any substantive knowledge of the period of Ottoman domination over the Greek church or its fate since independence). There is still much to learn here for those already generally familiar, say, with the Greek and Russian traditions, for example the largely unknown story of the pre-modern Romanian lands. Although the article on the Serbian tradition justifiably highlights the sufferings of Serbs at various points in their history (for example, during World War II), it is inexcusable that the author passes over their complicity in the atrocities of the 1990s in complete silence.
The section that might raise the most questions, with regard to editorial decision, is the biographical one. Some church fathers are included (John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria), but many are not, though less familiar but critically important figures such as Maximos the Confessor are here. But one can only wonder why Nil Sorsky and Sergii Bulgakov are included but Joseph of Volotsk and Georges Florovsky left out; or why Raphael Hawaeeny was included but St. Tikhon, his co-worker, and later patriarch of the Russian church during the revolution was left out. The list could easily be multiplied of figures omitted that are of equal importance to those included, so this must be seen as a representative sample more than anything else. The volume might have been better served by twice as many shorter biographical sketches. Nevertheless, the subjects included receive excellent and up-to-date treatment.
Perhaps the most interesting section is the final one. Here the reader will find the distinctive Orthodox approach to major theological areas such as key concepts of the church, how church discipline works, morality and theology, and the veneration of saints. One theme that emerges is the degree to which Orthodoxy tends to be less “codified” than Roman Catholicism, in many areas of doctrine, in canon law, and categorizing and defining sainthood. A very important essay addresses the place of women in the Church as it developed historically and also engages the issue of women's ordination, noting that the position of the deaconess was well known in the first millennium of the Church but that ordination to the priesthood is generally an issue raised by outsiders more than from within, by Orthodox women. Another substantial set of articles deal with culture, beginning with a broad article by John A. McGuckin on “Orthodoxy and Culture” and followed by two articles on philosophy, two on literature, and one on music. One issue that has been the subject of a number of recent publications that is missing from this volume is that of Orthodoxy and science.
The Orthodox Christian World will be of great interest to students and scholars of Orthodoxy, to be sure, who will find discussion of topics outside their own areas of specialization. More importantly, all who work in the burgeoning field of World Christianity should consult this volume and direct their students to it as a starting point for delving into one of the less familiar, yet critically important, forms of Christianity.
