This is the fifth volume in the series, intending to contribute to a total history of Christianity from its beginnings until the present day, and presents a neat survey of the history of the various eastern and so-called ‘orthodox’ Churches from the tenth and eleventh centuries up to the twentieth century. Almost half the volume (part i) is devoted to the Byzantine and ‘Greek’ Orthodox Church from about 1000 ce to the second half of the twentieth century, with the histories of the Russian Church, the various eastern Churches (Coptic, Jacobite, Nestorian, Melkite, Armenian and Ethiopian) in parts ii and iii, and a somewhat briefer section, looking at the Church in the modern world, in part iv. As a synthetic overview of these disparate histories, which demonstrates at the same time the different elements of continuity and the ways in which they are articulated in contemporary Christianity in the communities and areas in question, it is an invaluable guide, and puts the developments with which it is concerned ably into their broader historical context. Part i opens with an excellent survey of ‘The Byzantine commonwealth, 1000–1500’ by Jonathan Shepard, in which the scene is set for the divergent ecclesiastical and theological traditions which arose in this fertile ground. This is followed by chapters on Byzantium and the west, on lay piety in the Byzantine world from 1054 to 1453 (which nicely locates popular and elite piety within the sphere of traditional cultural practices which were often pre- and in some cases remained visibly non-Christian, yet survived and indeed flourished), on the rise of hesychasm, on art and liturgy in Byzantium, on Mount Athos and the Ottomans from 1350 to 1550, on the former Byzantine Church under Ottoman authority, on orthodoxy and the effects upon it of the Reformation and Enlightenment in the west, on the orthodox pilgrim and traveller Bars'kyj in the eighteenth century, and on orthodoxy and nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the last an especially insightful treatment by Paschalis Kitromilides. This is an impressive range of topics, which will provide anyone who needs to know about the subjects treated in each chapter with an up-to-date account and the state of current discussion. Part ii treats the Russian Church up to 1917, and deals with a smaller but similar range of subjects, from Russian piety and Orthodox culture, through art and liturgy, the Russian and Ukrainian Churches in the age of the Counter-Reformation, and in imperial Russia. Part iii, as noted, deals with the eastern Churches and Christian communities, and takes the story of their evolution, differentiation and political development up to the modern period – the final chapter in this section is entitled ‘Syriac Christianity in the modern Middle East’. Finally, part iv deals with such varied issues as problems of diaspora and church politics, the Orthodox Church and communism, and modern spirituality and orthodoxy.

This is not the place to undertake a detailed critical analysis of individual contributions, merely to highlight the structure of the volume and to point to its overall value, which is undoubtedly high. Although the editors of the series have clearly had to be selective, the coverage is remarkably complete. There are, inevitably, desiderata that have not been met, and one could argue that some topics ought perhaps to have received more treatment than they have done. It would have been extremely useful, for example, to have had a chapter tracing the history of monasticism in its varied forms across the whole of the eastern Christian world from medieval times onwards, and in particular looking at the political influence of monasticism in both medieval and especially more recent times – in the context of nationalism, for example, or the post-Communist world in the east. Some of the sections do indeed deal with this topic as part of their wider surveys, but a chapter specifically devoted to this subject would have been immensely valuable. By the same token, while the penultimate chapter dealing with the Orthodox Church and communism offers a valuable brief history of that subject, the important changes which affected the former Soviet-bloc lands after 1990 remain untreated. In particular the ways in which certain of the eastern Churches in Russia, the Ukraine and Byelarus, as well as in the Balkans, played a role in both political transformation, in conservative or radical social movements, in influencing education and university syllabi, and in influencing popular politics and voting patterns, should perhaps have been included in this volume. Perhaps this will be rectified in the final volume, World Christianities c. 1914–c. 2000, but one cannot help feeling that the specific field treated in this volume would have offered a better home for such a review.

Whatever criticisms one might have of the volume at this level, however, there is no doubt that this is an important collection of well-written, well-researched and useful contributions which give the eastern Churches the attention and centrality in the history of Christianity that they merit, and which offers an invaluable work of reference as well as an interpretation of the eastern Churches and their transformation from medieval to modern times.