The nineteenth century was a critical one for the Orthodox people of Southeastern Europe. From a static intellectual world under Ottoman rule, nationalism propelled events to move very swiftly. The nation now took the place of Christianity, which once had been the source of self-identity; thrusting aside the universalism of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This book follows the decline in Patriarchal authority in four Balkan states that appeared as a result of this change. These are Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Each chapter is the work of an expert in national church history, with the editor contributing an introduction and a postscript.

The contributors emphasize the parallel between the national movements as well as their differences. Orthodox leaders appeared on both sides of the wisdom in forming national churches. Does an independent nation really require an independent church? Does the establishment of a national church add to or subtract from Jesus's Last Supper request that all his followers should become one (John 17, 21)? Is it possible that nationalism is a form of heresy? Certainly the condemnation of the 1872 Bulgarian exarchate by Patriarch Anthimos VI and the Holy Synod seem to think it was.

This book provides an excellent essay on each of the countries under consideration. With fifty pages of notes any student of Balkan church history should have enough source material to provide a fair evaluation of the steps that occurred in this century of rapid change.