Books in the Erfurter Studien zur Kulturgeschichte des orthodoxen Christentums series

Starting with a definition of political modernity from the perspective of its greatest trial ¿ totalitarianism ¿ this study asks the question how community is conceptualized in the contemporary Western philosophical discourse and in the Russian Orthodox intellectual tradition. Contemporary philosophical and theological approaches in Russia develop alternative perspectives on community and on the human subject. This study analyzes them historically and philosophically and compares them with liberal, postmodern and communitarian philosophies of community in the West.

Uses primarily periodicals and other published sources from the period between 1917 and 1940 to shed light on the internal discussions in the respective Orthodox Churches on issues of authority, and history. This book includes reforming liturgical elements and emphasising the positive role of Orthodox Christianity in Estonian and Latvian history.

The book examines deep shifts in religious life of Russia and the post-Soviet world as a whole over the course of the last quarter of the century. It deals with transformations of the religious field, including ritual practices, national identity discourse, and Eastern Orthodoxy's tense negotiations with the State, secular society, and Western liberal globalism.

The Russian Orthodox Church in her post-Soviet canon law suggests a comprehensive cultural program of modernity that combines transcendence and immanence, theological and social reasoning, an afterlife strategy and cooperation with secular actors, whereby eschatology and the human rights discourse become two sides of the same coin.