Status Updates From The Orthodox Church: An Int...

"...icons were part of the transfigured cosmos." (18)

This chapter is all about Orthodoxy in Russia, primarily during the Synodical Period (1700-1917).
It is interesting to think of Moscow as the "Third Rome", since Rome is believed by the Orthodox to have fallen to barbarians and then heresy, with the second Rome, Constantinople, falling to the Turks after that.
The schism between the Possesor and Non-Possesor theological views of monasticism was interesting as well.

This chapter focuses on Orthodoxy in Russia, primarily during the Synodical Period (1700-1917), instituted by Peter the Great. It emphasizes how the Church not only endured under the less than ideal circumstances without a Patriarchate, but thrived.
Before that, there was a schism and theological controversy between possessor and non-possessor views of monasticism, which refers to the possession of land by monks.

Read the chapter on Orthodoxy under Ottoman rule, and I am very surprised by the author's description of the conqueror of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II.
For one, he's not described as a sexual deviant with an army of animalistic mercenaries, as I have read in other books.
I am also surprised by the lack of violent persecution toward Orthodoxy under Turkish rule and the "Millet" system, albeit, still second class.