Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements in Eastern Europe

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.

• 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 OrthodoxChurch 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.

“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)