What do you think?
Rate this book
The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West
The story of Orthodox Christianity’s relationship with the West plays a pivotal role in the construction of Orthodox identity. That story took a decisive turn in the twentieth century. Suddenly, Orthodox thinkers, particularly those from the former Russian Empire, found themselves living in foreign lands and looking at Orthodoxy through the other end of the looking glass — the West. It was from there that Orthodox theologians were faced with the greatest challenge to their collective religious identity: What did it mean to be Eastern Orthodox outside of the East?
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 23, 2026
This is a remarkable history - and it is more a history than a theological account - of Eastern Orthodox believers in the West. Surprisingly, none of the book's four authors are Eastern Orthodox themselves - they are all Protestants!
The authors trace the fate and fortunes of Eastern Orthodoxy from the demise of Byzantium up until the end of the Cold War, although most of the book focuses on the twentieth century and Russian Orthodoxy. That is one of my few qualms about The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West as notable theologians such as Dumitru Stăniloae, John Zizioulas, and Christos Yannaras receive scant mention despite their major contributions to Orthodox theology.
Compared to the upheavals that rent Western Christianity and further developments such as the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Eastern Orthodox theology has been accused of being relatively stagnant until the nineteenth century. In the aftermath of the Byzantine Empire, Hellenism and hesychasm were the two primary schools of spirituality that guided Orthodox thought; from at least the twentieth century (if not the latter nineteenth century) on, Neo-Patristics and sophiology vied for dominance in Orthodoxy theology, with the former largely triumphing. The Neo-Patristics school was led by the likes of Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, Alexander Schmemann, and John Meyendorff while proponents of sophiology included Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Bulgakov, and Pavel Florensky.
Modern Eastern Orthodoxy is not typically associated with missions but the authors highlight the Russian Orthodox mission in Alaska. They also deal at length with the various divisions within Eastern Orthodoxy, both ethnic (Greek, Russian, Serbian, etc...) and within Russian Orthodoxy between the ecclesiastical body that allied itself to the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Because the book focuses so much on Russian Orthodoxy, the exodus and exile of Russian believers out of their homeland following the Bolshevik Revolution features prominently; many of the exiles wound up in other Eastern European countries, Berlin, and especially Paris. New schools were established for the training of priests, such as St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary in New York, and St. Sergius Theological Institute and St. Dionysius Institute, both in Paris (and aligned with ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate, respectively).
What is especially valuable in this book is the wide swath of non-English Orthodox sources consulted, most of which I assume are not readily translated into English. The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West is an impressive and comprehensive history of Orthodox believers from the fall of Constantinople to the end of the Cold War.
The authors trace the fate and fortunes of Eastern Orthodoxy from the demise of Byzantium up until the end of the Cold War, although most of the book focuses on the twentieth century and Russian Orthodoxy. That is one of my few qualms about The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West as notable theologians such as Dumitru Stăniloae, John Zizioulas, and Christos Yannaras receive scant mention despite their major contributions to Orthodox theology.
Compared to the upheavals that rent Western Christianity and further developments such as the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Eastern Orthodox theology has been accused of being relatively stagnant until the nineteenth century. In the aftermath of the Byzantine Empire, Hellenism and hesychasm were the two primary schools of spirituality that guided Orthodox thought; from at least the twentieth century (if not the latter nineteenth century) on, Neo-Patristics and sophiology vied for dominance in Orthodoxy theology, with the former largely triumphing. The Neo-Patristics school was led by the likes of Georges Florovsky, Vladimir Lossky, Alexander Schmemann, and John Meyendorff while proponents of sophiology included Vladimir Solovyov, Sergei Bulgakov, and Pavel Florensky.
Modern Eastern Orthodoxy is not typically associated with missions but the authors highlight the Russian Orthodox mission in Alaska. They also deal at length with the various divisions within Eastern Orthodoxy, both ethnic (Greek, Russian, Serbian, etc...) and within Russian Orthodoxy between the ecclesiastical body that allied itself to the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Because the book focuses so much on Russian Orthodoxy, the exodus and exile of Russian believers out of their homeland following the Bolshevik Revolution features prominently; many of the exiles wound up in other Eastern European countries, Berlin, and especially Paris. New schools were established for the training of priests, such as St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary in New York, and St. Sergius Theological Institute and St. Dionysius Institute, both in Paris (and aligned with ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate, respectively).
What is especially valuable in this book is the wide swath of non-English Orthodox sources consulted, most of which I assume are not readily translated into English. The Ways of Orthodox Theology in the West is an impressive and comprehensive history of Orthodox believers from the fall of Constantinople to the end of the Cold War.
March 6, 2021
An interesting review of Orthodox history focusing a great deal on the 20th Century, which shows how we got to where we are. Detailed focus especially on a few Russian emigres to the West, and how events in Russia forced many Orthodox to find homes in Western Europe and America. Probably what struck me most was how very diverse Russian Orthodoxy itself was, let alone when one considers all the other Orthodox 'nationalities' which form a very complex matrix of ideas rather than a monolithic structure in which which everyone thinks alike and is expected to think alike. Even when the Russians rejected communism they did it for very different reasons and had very different expectations for what might emerge in Russia. Many felt divorcing the church from the state was good for Orthodoxy, but then they all struggled mightily to form a church which was not dominated by the state and really struggled to bring Orthodoxy into the 20th Century and the Western world in which there were a host of ideas and challenges they were ill prepared to deal with.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews